Elisha Cook Jr.

Diminutive character actor Elisha Cook Jr. (born December 26, 1903 in San Francisco, California, USA, died May 18, 1995 in Big Pine, California) made a career playing cowardly villians and neurotics earning the nickname "Hollywood's lightest heavy". Cook started out in vaudeville and then became a Broadway actor. In 1936 he settled in Hollywood and, after playing a series of college-aged parts, began a long stint playing weaklings or sadistic loser-hoods: In Universal's Phantom Lady, he portrays a slimy, intoxicated nightclub-orchestra drummer. Other notable roles include the wannabe gangster in The Maltese Falcon, "pug ugly" Marty Waterman in Born to Kill (1947) , Harry Jones in The Big Sleep (1946) and George Peatty, the hen-pecked husband to Marie Windsor, in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). His acting career spanned over sixty years.

Related Topics:
December 26 - 1903 - San Francisco, California - USA - May 18 - 1995 - Big Pine, California - Vaudeville - Broadway - 1936 - Hollywood - Universal - Phantom Lady - The Maltese Falcon - Born to Kill - 1947 - The Big Sleep - 1946 - Marie Windsor - Stanley Kubrick - The Killing - 1956

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Cook also had a long-term recurring role as Icepick on Magnum, P.I..

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It's been said that Cook has been directed by more great directors than any other actor:

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• 1982: Wim Wenders (Hammett)
• 1979: Steven Spielberg (1941)
• 1979: Tobe Hooper (Salem's Lot)
• 1979: Franco Zeffirelli (The Champ)
• 1976: J. Lee Thompson (St. Ives)
• 1973: Robert Aldrich (Emperor of the North Pole)
• 1973: Sam Peckinpah (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid)
• 1973: James William Guercio's only direction (Electra Glide in Blue)
• 1968: Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby)
• 1966: Richard Donner ("The Wild, Wild West" episode "Bars of Hell")
• 1963: Roger Corman (The Haunted Palace)
• 1961: Marlon Brando's only direction (One-Eyed Jacks)
• 1960: John Cassavetes ("Johnny Staccato" episode "Solomon")
• 1959: William Castle (House on Haunted Hill)
• 1957: Don Siegel (Baby Face Nelson)
• 1956: Stanley Kubrick (The Killing)
• 1953: George Stevens (Shane)
• 1947: Robert Wise (Born to Kill)
• 1946: Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep)
• 1946: Busby Berkeley (Cinderella Jones)
• 1941: John Huston (The Maltese Falcon)
• 1938: John Ford (Submarine Patrol)
• 1937: Otto Preminger (Danger-Love at Work)
• 1937: Mervyn LeRoy (They Won't Forget)
 
Elisha Cook Jr.: External links ►