Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie job by trading his accounting services for a role. In short time he became one of the most memorable supporting players in Hollywood, thanks not only to his near-demented screen persona but also to an o

Credits include: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Bite the Bullet, The FBI Story, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and The King and Four Queens

Credits include: The Land Before Time, Somewhere in Time, She's Having a Baby, Chairman of the Board and Invitation to Hell

Credits include: White Heat, Decision at Sundown, Destination Moon, Colorado Territory and Sherlock Holmes in Washington

Credits include: I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Ruby Gentry, Suitable for Framing, The True Story of Jesse James and The Naked Street

Credits include: Julius Caesar, The Big Combo, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, Blackboard Jungle and Flesh Gordon

Credits include: Planet of the Apes, Twilight Zone: The Movie and The Twilight Zone

Credits include: Not of This Earth, Apache Woman, Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?, The Parallel and Population: Zero

Credits include: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? and The Playbook

Credits include: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? and The Fever

Credits include: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? and A Tangled Web

Credits include: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?