Elisha Cook Jr. facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Elisha Cook Jr.
Cook in Dillinger (1945)
Born	Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (1903-12-26)December 26, 1903 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	May 18, 1995(1995-05-18) (aged 91) Big Pine, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1926–1988
Spouse(s)	Mary Gertrude Dunckley (m. 1928; div. 1941) Peggy McKenna (m. 1943; div. 1968) (m. 1971)

Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American actor. He was famous for playing "character roles" in movies. These are actors who play interesting, often unusual, supporting parts instead of the main hero.

Elisha Cook Jr. was especially known for his work in film noir movies. These were dark, stylish crime films. He appeared in more film noir movies than any other actor. He often played characters who seemed quiet but were actually dangerous. His acting career lasted over 60 years. He appeared in many famous films like The Big Sleep, Shane, and Rosemary's Baby.

Early Life and Stage Acting
- Military Service During World War II
His Film Career
- Becoming a "Bad Guy" Actor
Television Roles
Personal Life
Death
Complete filmography
Television credits
See also

Early Life and Stage Acting

Around the table in the Theatre Guild's original 1933 Broadway production of Ah, Wilderness! are (from left) George M. Cohan, Eda Heinemann, Elisha Cook, Jr., Gene Lockhart, Marjorie Marquis, Walter Vonnegut, Jr. and Adelaide Bean.

Elisha Cook Jr. was born in San Francisco, California. He grew up in Chicago. His father was a journalist and playwright, and his mother was an actress.

He started working in theaters by selling programs. By age 14, he was already performing. He acted in vaudeville shows and summer plays. In 1933, a famous writer named Eugene O'Neill chose him for a play called Ah, Wilderness. This play was very popular and ran on Broadway for two years.

Military Service During World War II

Elisha Cook Jr. joined the United States Army in Los Angeles in 1942. His records show he was 5 feet 5 inches tall. He weighed 123 pounds. He had completed three years of high school.

His Film Career

In 1930, Cook moved to California. He made his first movie in Hollywood. It was called Her Unborn Child.

At first, he often played smart, quiet college students. For example, he was a college freshman in Pigskin Parade (1936). He also appeared in Life Begins in College (1937). He worked for a studio called Twentieth Century-Fox for two years. After that, he started working for different studios.

He sometimes returned to Fox for important roles. He played a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley (1940). He was also a mobster disguised as an old woman in a Laurel and Hardy movie, A-Haunting We Will Go (1942). He played a shy screenwriter in the comedy Hellzapoppin (1941).

Becoming a "Bad Guy" Actor

Cook in The Maltese Falcon (1941)

His career changed after the movie The Maltese Falcon (1941). In this film, he played Wilmer Cook. After this role, he often played sneaky or dangerous characters.

In Phantom Lady (1944), he played a strange nightclub drummer. He was praised for his role in The Falcon's Alibi (1946). In that movie, he played a cheerful disc jockey who turns out to be a criminal. He also had a role in the 1953 crime film I, the Jury.

Cook meeting a typical sticky end at the hands of Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947)

Some of his most famous roles include:

Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Harry Jones in The Big Sleep (1946)
Marty Waterman in Born to Kill (1947), where his character often met a bad end.
'Stonewall' Torrey in Shane (1953), a former soldier who is defeated by Jack Palance.
George Peatty in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956).

He also appeared in many other films. These include the horror movie House on Haunted Hill (1959), Rosemary's Baby (1968), and Blacula (1972).

Television Roles

Elisha Cook Jr. appeared in many American TV shows. He was on television from the early 1950s to the late 1980s.

In 1954, he played a detective named Homer Garrity in Adventures of Superman. He also guest-starred on The Dennis Day Show. In 1960, he was in an episode of The Real McCoys. He also appeared in the western series The Rebel. He played Gideon McCoy in The Wild Wild West in 1966.

He made two guest appearances on the TV show Perry Mason. He played a lawyer, Samuel T. Cogley, in a 1967 episode of Star Trek. He was Isaac Isaacson on the Batman TV series. He also had a long-running role on Magnum, P.I. in the 1980s.

Toward the end of his career, he often played older characters. He was a homeless man in The A-Team. One of his last roles was an elderly uncle in Alf in 1988. He retired from acting after that.

Personal Life

Elisha Cook Jr. was married twice. His first wife was Mary Gertrude Dunckley. She was a singer. They were married from 1928 to 1941. He then married Elvira Ann (Peggy) McKenna in 1943. They were married for 25 years. They divorced in 1968 but remarried in 1971. Their second marriage lasted until Peggy's death in 1990.

Cook was not interested in the Hollywood social scene. He preferred a quiet life. Even though he was small, he loved the outdoors. He lived for many years in Bishop, California. He spent his summers at Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The director John Huston said that Cook lived alone in the mountains. He would fish for trout between movies. When Hollywood needed him, they would send someone to his cabin. He would come down, make a movie, and then return to his quiet mountain home.

Death

Elisha Cook Jr. died on May 18, 1995. He was 91 years old. He passed away from a stroke at a nursing home in Big Pine, California. He was the last living main cast member from the movie The Maltese Falcon.

Complete filmography

Her Unborn Child (1930) as Stewart Kennedy (film debut)
Chills and Fever (1930 short) as Member of the Glee Club (uncredited)
Honor Among Lovers (1931) as Office Boy (uncredited)
Two in a Crowd (1936) as Skeeter
Pigskin Parade (1936) as Herbert Van Dyke
Breezing Home (1937) as Pete Espinosa (uncredited)
Love Is News (1937) as Egbert Eggleston
The Devil Is Driving (1937) as Tony Stevens
They Won't Forget (1937) as Joe Turner
Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937) as Glen Wylie
Danger - Love at Work (1937) as Chemist
Life Begins in College (1937) as Ollie Stearns
Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937) as Boots Maguire (uncredited)
Three Blind Mice (1938) as Boy on Bench (uncredited)
My Lucky Star (1938) as Waldo
Submarine Patrol (1938) as Seaman Rutherford Davis Pratt, aka 'The Professor'
Newsboys' Home (1938) as Danny
Grand Jury Secrets (1939) as Robert Austin / Norman Hazlitt
He Married His Wife (1940) as Dicky Brown
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) as Joe Briggs
Public Deb No. 1 (1940) as Communist
Tin Pan Alley (1940) as Joe Codd
Love Crazy (1941) as Elevator Man
Sergeant York (1941) as Piano Player (uncredited)
Man at Large (1941) as Hotel Clerk
The Maltese Falcon (1941) as Wilmer Cook
I Wake Up Screaming (1941) as Harry Williams
Hellzapoppin' (1941) as Harry Selby
Ball of Fire (1941) as Waiter
A Gentleman at Heart (1942) as Genius
Sleepytime Gal (1942) as Ernie
A-Haunting We Will Go (1942) as Frank Lucas
Wildcat (1942) as Harold 'Chicopee' Nevins
Manila Calling (1942) as Gillman
Kill or Be Killed (1942)
Baptism of Fire (1943 documentary) as Bill
Phantom Lady (1944) as Cliff
Up in Arms (1944) as Info Jones
Dark Mountain (1944) as Whitey
Dark Waters (1944) as Cleeve
Dillinger (1945) as Kirk Otto
Why Girls Leave Home (1945) as Jimmy Lobo
Blonde Alibi (1946) as Sam Collins
Cinderella Jones (1946) as Oliver S. Patch
The Falcon's Alibi (1946) as Nick
Joe Palooka, Champ (1946) as Eugene
Two Smart People (1946) as Fly Feletti
The Big Sleep (1946) as Harry Jones
Fall Guy (1947) as Joe
Born to Kill (1947) as Marty
The Long Night (1947) as Frank Dunlap
The Gangster (1947) as Oval
Flaxy Martin (1949) as Roper
The Great Gatsby (1949) as Klipspringer
Behave Yourself (1951) as Albert Jonas
Don't Bother to Knock (1952) as Eddie Forbes
Shane (1953) as Stonewall Torrey
I, the Jury (1953) as Bobo (uncredited)
Thunder Over the Plains (1953) as Joseph Standish
The Outlaw's Daughter (1954) as Lewis 'Tulsa' Cook
Drum Beat (1954) as Blaine Crackel
Timberjack (1955) as Punky
Trial (1955) as Finn
The Indian Fighter (1955) as Briggs
Indian Agent (1955, TV movie) as Pete, the Cavalry Scout (uncredited)
The Killing (1956) as George Peatty
Accused of Murder (1956) as "Whitey" Pollock
Voodoo Island (1957) as Martin Schuyler
The Lonely Man (1957) as Willie
Chicago Confidential (1957) as Candymouth Duggan
Plunder Road (1957) as Skeets Jonas
Baby Face Nelson (1957) as Homer van Meter
House on Haunted Hill (1959) as Watson Pritchard
Day of the Outlaw (1959) as Larry Teter (town barber)
Platinum High School (1960) as Harry Nesbit
College Confidential (1960) as Ted Blake
One-Eyed Jacks (1961) as Carvey
Papa's Delicate Condition (1963) as Mr. Keith
Black Zoo (1963) as Joe
The Haunted Palace (1963) as Peter Smith / Micah Smith
Johnny Cool (1963) as Undertaker
The Judge (1963, TV movie)
The Glass Cage (1964) as Girl's father
Blood on the Arrow (1964) as Tex
McNab's Lab (1966, TV movie) as Coach
The Spy in the Green Hat (1967) as Arnold
Welcome to Hard Times (1967) as Hanson
Rosemary's Baby (1968) as Mr. Nicklas
Cry for Poor Wally (1969) as Preacher
The Great Bank Robbery (1969) as Jeb
The Movie Murderer (1970, TV movie) as Willie Peanuts
El Condor (1970) as Old Convict
Night Slaves (1970, TV movie)
Night Chase (1970, TV movie) as Proprietor
The Scarecrow (1972, TV movie) as Micah
The Night Stalker (1972, TV movie) as Mickey Crawford
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) as Bunker
Blacula (1972) as Sam
Messiah of Evil (1973) as Charlie
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) as Cody
Emperor of the North Pole (1973) as Gray Cat
Electra Glide in Blue (1973) as Willie
The Outfit (1973) as Carl
The Phantom of Hollywood (1974, TV movie) as Studio Engineer (uncredited)
Winterhawk (1975) as Finley
The Black Bird (1975) as Wilmer Cook
Senior Power ...and how to use it! (1975) as Henry Boyle
St. Ives (1976) as Eddie
Dead of Night (1977, TV movie) as Karel
Mad Bull (1977, TV movie) as Sweeper
The Champ (1979) as Georgie
Salem's Lot (1979, TV movie) as Gordon "Weasel" Phillips
1941 (1979) as The Patron (Dexter)
Tom Horn (1980) as Stablehand
Carny (1980) as On-Your-Mark
Harry's War (1981) as Sgt. Billy
Leave 'em Laughing (1981 TV movie) as Jetter
National Lampoon's Movie Madness (1982) as Mousy ("Municipalians")
Hammett (1982) as Eli the Taxi Driver
Terror at Alcatraz (1982, TV movie) as Hotel Desk Clerk
This Girl for Hire (1983, TV movie) as Eddie
Shadow of Sam Penny (1983, TV movie) as Dutch Silver
Off Sides (Pigs vs. Freaks) (1984, TV movie) as Novatney
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (1984, TV movie) as Mr. Bibbs
Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse (1984) as Mr. Maps
The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (1987, TV movie) as Pappy Glue

Television credits

The Honeymooners in Santa and the Bookies. (December 12, 1953)

Adventures of Superman in "Semi-Private Eye," (January 16, 1954) as Homer Garrity,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) (Season 1 Episode 6: "Salvage") as Shorty
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp as "Guns" McCallum
Perry Mason in "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client" (1958) as Art Crowley
Gunsmoke in "Matt for Murder" (1958) as Huggins
Gunsmoke in "Odd Man Out" (1959) as Cyrus Tucker
Rawhide (1959) as Bain
Bat Masterson in "No Funeral For Thorn" (1959) as Thorn Loomis (playing Bat’s long time friend in a rare “good guy” role)
The Real McCoys in "The Hermit" (1960) as Harry
’’Peter Gunn’’ in “The Long Long Ride” (1960) as Snooker
Wagon Train in "The Tracy Sadler Story" (1960) as Cadge Waldo
Tightrope in "The Long Odds" (1960) as Sam Parker
Tombstone Territory in “The Witness” (1960) as Adam Kirby
The Rebel in "The Bequest" (1960) as Jeremy Hake
Thriller in "The Fatal Impulse" (1960) as The Assassin
The Islanders in "The Twenty-Six Paper" (1961) as Tomas
Surfside 6 in "Witness for the Defense" (1961) as Mike Pulaski
The Deputy in "Brand of Honesty" (1961) as Miller
Laramie in "The Tumbleweed Wagon" (1961) as Doc
Rawhide (1961) – Joel Turner in S3:E22, "Incident in the Middle of Nowhere"
Outlaws in "The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid" (1962) as Cully
The Dakotas in "A Nice Girl from Goliath" (1963) as Brinkman
Gunsmoke in "Hung High" (1964) as George
Gunsmoke in "Breckinridge" (1965) as Jackie Beal (S10E25)
The Wild Wild West in "The Night of the Double-Edged Knife" (1965) as Mike McGreavy and "The Night of the Bars of Hell" (1966) as Gideon McCoy
Star Trek in "Court Martial" (1967) as Samuel T. Cogley, Esq
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir in "Not So Desperate Hours" as Frankie.
The Odd Couple in "Our Fathers" (1974) as Eliot Ness
Mannix in "The Green Man" (1974) as Herbie
Starsky & Hutch in "Lady Blue" (1975) as Polly the snitch
The Bionic Woman in "Once a Thief" (1977) as Inky (credited as Elisha Cook)
Insight in "The Trouble with Grandpa" (1982) as Grandpa
Magnum, P.I. (1980s) as Francis "Ice Pick" Hofstetler in 13 episodes (final television appearance)
Night Court in "Married Alive" (1985) as Wilbur Posten
The Twilight Zone in "Welcome to Winfield" (1986) as Weldon
The A-Team (1985) in Season 4 Ep. 5 "Road To Hope" as Jim Beam
ALF in "We're So Sorry, Uncle Albert" (1988) as Uncle Albert