# Cockeyed Character Actor Jack Elam Dead at 84 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockeyed-character-actor-jack-elam-dead-at-84/208957 "2003-10-22T20:00:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockeyed-character-actor-jack-elam-dead-at-84/208957/1 "2003-10-22T20:00:07Z")
[Everyone knows this guy.](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/22/entertainment/main579517.shtml) Credits include **Support Your Local Sheriff** and **Support Your Local Gunfighter** as James Garner’s cowardly sidekick. He was also in Sergio Leone’s **Once Upon a Time in the West** and did a short-lived TV series **The Texas Wheelers** that was better known as an early vehicle for Gary Busey and Mark Hamill. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockeyed-character-actor-jack-elam-dead-at-84/208957/2 "2003-10-22T20:14:44Z")
I love Support your Local Sheriff. That was a great movie. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cockeyed-character-actor-jack-elam-dead-at-84/208957/3 "2003-10-22T20:23:08Z")
I’ll always remember him as the drugged-up proctologist who accompanied Burt Reynolds and Dom Delouise in their fake ambulance/race vehicle in _The Cannonball Run_. I loved the way he was always smelling his finger! Cracked me up! (what? I was only ten years old!)