Elisha Cook, Jr. Biography

Elisha Vanslyck Cook, Jr. (December 26, 1903 " May 18, 1995) was an American character actor who made a career out of playing cowardly villains and weedy neurotics in dozens of films. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the "gunsel" Wilmer, who tries to intimidate Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, but his acting career spanned more than 60 years.

Career

Cook was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Elisha Vanslyck Cook, Sr., a pharmacist. He grew up in Chicago. He started out in vaudeville and stock by the age of fourteen. He was a traveling actor in the East Coast and the Midwest before arriving in New York City, where Eugene O'Neill cast him in his play Ah, Wilderness!, which ran on Broadway for two years.

In 1936, Cook settled in Hollywood and, after playing a series of college-aged parts, began a long period playing weaklings or sadistic losers and hoods. Cook's characters usually ended up being killed off (strangled, poisoned or shot); he was perhaps Hollywood's most notable fall guy for many years. He made a rare appearance in slapstick comedy in the cameo role of The Screenwriter in 1941's Hellzapoppin'. In Universal's Phantom Lady of 1944, he portrays a slimy, intoxicated nightclub-orchestra drummer to memorable effect. He had a substantial uncredited role as Bobo in I, the Jury (1953).

Other notable roles included Wilmer the "gunsel" in The Maltese Falcon (1941), a henchman (Marty Waterman) of the murderous title character in Born to Kill, the doomed informant Harry Jones in The Big Sleep (1946), the pugnacious ex-Confederate soldier "Stonewall" Torrey in Shane (1953), and George Peatty, the crooked hen-pecked husband to Marie Windsor, in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). At the other end of the cinematic spectrum, he appeared in William Castle's horror film House on Haunted Hill (1959) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Cook appeared on American television. He played a private detective in a 1953 episode of Adventures of Superman television series entitled Semi-Private Eye. That same season, he guest starred on NBC's The Dennis Day Show. He made two guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason; in 1958 he played Art Crowley in "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client," and in 1964 he played Reelin' Pete in "The Case of the Reckless Rockhound."

On December 15, 1960, he was cast in the episode, "The Hermit", of the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys, with Walter Brennan. He appeared as Jeremy Hake in the 1960 episode "The Bequest" of the ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams. He appeared in the second episode of ABC's popular crime drama, The Fugitive.

Cook played lawyer Samuel T. Cogley in the Star Trek episode "Court Martial", Isaac Isaacson on the Batman television series, Weasel Craig in Salem's Lot, and later had a long-term recurring role as Honolulu crime lord "Ice Pick" on CBS's Magnum, P.I., starring Tom Selleck.

He also appeared in The Bionic Woman episode "Once a Thief" in 1977 opposite Lindsay Wagner.

Personal life

Cook married twice. His first marriage was to Mary Lou Cook in 1929, but they divorced in 1942. His second marriage, which lasted until his death, was to Peggy McKenna Cook in 1943. He had no children, although he spent time raising a niece. He lived in Bishop, California, typically summering on Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

According to John Huston, who directed him in The Maltese Falcon:

"[Cook] lived alone up in the High Sierra, tied flies and caught golden trout between films. When he was wanted in Hollywood, they sent word up to his mountain cabin by courier. He would come down, do a picture, and then withdraw again to his retreat."

Death

Cook died of a stroke on May 18, 1995 in Big Pine, California.

Selected filmography

• Her Unborn Child (1930) (film debut)
• Pigskin Parade (1936)
• They Won't Forget (1937)
• Submarine Patrol (1938)
• He Married His Wife (1940)
• Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
• Tin Pan Alley (1940)
• Ball of Fire (1941)
• I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Hellzapoppin' (1941)
• A Gentleman at Heart (1942)
• Manila Calling (1942)
• A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)
• Baptism of Fire (1943)
• Phantom Lady (1944)
• Dark Waters (1944)
• Dillinger (1945)
• Two Smart People (1946)
• The Big Sleep (1946)
• Joe Palooka, Champ (1946)
• Born to Kill (1947)
• The Gangster (1947)
• The Long Night (1947)
• Flaxy Martin (1949)
• The Great Gatsby (1949)
• Behave Yourself (1951)
• Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
• I, The Jury (1953) (uncredited)
• Shane (1953)
• The Killing (1956)
• Accused of Murder (1956)
• Plunder Road (1957)
• Baby Face Nelson (1957)
• House on Haunted Hill (1959)
• One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
• Papa's Delicate Condition (1963)
• Black Zoo (1963)
• The Haunted Palace (1963)
• Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• The Night Stalker (1972) (TV)
• The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)
• Messiah of Evil (1972)
• Blacula (1972)
• Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) (uncredited)
• Emperor of the North Pole (1973)
• Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
• The Outfit (1973)
• The Black Bird (1975)
• St. Ives (1976)
• The Champ (1979)
• Salem's Lot (1979) (TV)
• 1941 (1979)
• Tom Horn (1980)
• Carny (1980)
• Harry's War (1981)
• Hammett (1982)
• Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse (1984)

Television

• Perry Mason, (1958) ("The Case Of The Lucky Loser")
• The Real McCoys in "The Hermit" (1960)
• Tightrope as Sam Parker in "The Long Odds" (1960)
• The Rebel as Jeremy Hake in "The Bequest" (1960)
• The Islanders as Tomas in "The Twenty Six Paper" (1961)
• Surfside 6 as Mike Pulaski in "Witness for the Defense" (1961)
• The Deputy as Miller in "Brand of Honesty" (1961)
• Laramie as Doc in "The Tumbleweed Wagon" (1961)
• Outlaws as Cully in "The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid" (1962)
• The Dakotas as Brinkman in "A Nice Girl from Goliath" (1963)w
• Star Trek: The Original Series as Samuel T. Cogley, Esq in "Court Martial" (1967)
• ALF (1988) ("We're So Sorry, Uncle Albert")
• The Bionic Woman (1977) ("Once a Thief") Credited as Elisha Cook