Biography

November 13, 1920 · Miami, Arizona, USA

October 20, 2003 · Ashland, Oregon, USA (congestive heart failure)

William Scott Elam

6′ (1.83 m)

His bulging eyes and unmoving left eye

Predominantly played mean, scheming henchmen in Westerns.

Gruff, yet authoritative voice

The heavy today is usually not my kind of guy. In the old days, Rory Calhoun was the hero because he was the hero and I was the heavy because I was the heavy - and nobody cared what my problem was. And I didn't either. I robbed the bank because I wanted the money. I've played all kinds of weirdos but I've never done the quiet, sick type. I never had a problem - other than the fact I was just bad.

[on Night Passage (1957)] It was a payday, but I could have done without it.

[Elam was not originally in the cast of "High Noon". After the movie concluded after the first cut, the filmmakers realized the climactic gunfight didn't work. They resumed production with Cooper and new cast member Elam] I knew him [Cooper] very well... They also had some extras in the bar. We went back to he jail cell and did a few shots of me in the cell with Cooper walking around and seeing me in there snoring. And then they did a shot where he lets me out of jail, and I go into the bar, people are coming out because it's high noon. They did about a full minute of me in the bar doing my drunken clown act. I'm taking drinks and putting drinks under my arms and all that. They were going to cut back and forth between me and the gunfight. But then they turned the picture loose with the regular gunfight before they added our stuff, and it got rave reviews. so they never put that stuff in. The only part they put in was to establish who I was. And the only thing you see of me in the bar was when I was going in and everyone else was coming out. The credits were already written up when I went to work. They didn't bother to put mine in, and that's why I didn't get the credit. But I was very happy because I got to work two days, and there was about a half a day with Cooper and me. And what a gentleman he was! There was about a day of me going into the bar and then of me just wandering around the bar. I understand there are some videocassettes of "High Noon" - but I don't think you can buy them in a store - where those scenes of mine are included in the outtakes, but I have never seen them. The last thing you see of me in the movie is when I'm going into the bar and the people are rushing out.

[on Audie Murphy] ... he was a true hero, I have to tell you. He loved to gamble, and I loved to gamble, and still do, and he was a real fanatic for poker, the horses, or dice, so that's what we did on the set. When we were on location, we had a poker game every goddamn night. But he was underrated as an actor and a very interesting guy. And he had a dynamite temper if you did him something wrong. I saw him flare up three or four times when he thought there was an injustice around him, and, believe me, he was like a coiled rattlesnake when he flared up, but never unreasonably. It was always in line such as if he didn't like some smart-ass on the set who was getting smart with a gal or something like that.

When I started I thought the part was as big as how much you said, you know how many lines you had. You count your lines and I got twenty-seven lines for example which is a good part.... Anyway I was doing a picture called "Jubal [Troop]" up in Colorado and I got a script sent to me for my next picture by the agent, it had, I counted the lines and there were only eight lines. In "Jubal" I had twenty-two lines so I thought it was a step down. And the picture was "Shane" and it made a star of Jack Palance.. So I learned it's not how many lines you got, but how you shoot 'em.