Elisha Cook Jr.

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Elisha Cooke Jr.

Elisha Cook Jr.
Cook in Dillinger (1945)
Born
Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr.

(1903-12-26)December 26, 1903
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedMay 18, 1995(1995-05-18) (aged 91)
Big Pine, California, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1926–1988
Spouses
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

films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of They Shoot Pictures, Don't They,[citation needed] Cook appeared in a total of 21 films noir, more than any other actor or actress. He played cheerful, brainy collegiates until he was cast against type as the bug-eyed baby-faced psychopathic killer Wilmer Cook in the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. [1] He went on to play deceptively mild-mannered villains. Cook's acting career spanned more than 60 years, with roles in productions including The Big Sleep, Shane, The Killing, House on Haunted Hill, and Rosemary's Baby
.

Early life, stage, and military service

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.

Cook was born in December 1903 in

Ah, Wilderness, which ran on Broadway for two years.[1] Cook continued to appear on stage during the remainder of the 1930s; and although his acting career after that focused increasingly on films and then on television roles, he periodically returned to Broadway, where as late as 1963 he performed as Giuseppe Givola in Bertolt Brecht's play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.[citation needed
]

Cook enlisted in the United States Army in Los Angeles, California, on August 15, 1942.[3] According to his enlistment record he stood 5-feet-5-inches tall and weighed 123 pounds.[4] Cook's military record documents his level of education at "3 years of high school."[3] Some online references[citation needed] state that he had attended "St. Albans College," "The Chicago Academy of Dramatic Art," and "The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts," which had been renamed the Art Institute of Chicago in 1882.

Career in film

In 1930, Cook traveled to California, where he made his film debut in Hollywood's version of the play Her Unborn Child, a motion picture directed by Albert Ray and produced by Windsor Picture Plays Inc.[5]

At

Twentieth Century-Fox, Cook made an impression as a bespectacled college freshman with radical ideas in the musical comedy Pigskin Parade (1936). He was also featured in the unofficial sequel, Life Begins in College (1937). Cook remained at Fox for two years, and then began freelancing at other studios. He did return to Fox occasionally in prominent roles: as a songwriter in the Alice Faye-Betty Grable musical Tin Pan Alley (1940), and as a mobster disguised as an old woman in the Laurel and Hardy feature A-Haunting We Will Go (1942). Typical of his early, bookish roles was his turn as a meek screenwriter in the madcap Olsen and Johnson comedy Hellzapoppin
(1941).

After The Maltese Falcon, Cook became typecast again, as weaklings or sadistic losers and hoodlums, who in the plots were usually murdered, either being strangled, poisoned or shot. In

Phantom Lady (1944), he portrays a slimy, intoxicated nightclub-orchestra drummer to memorable effect. He received excellent notices for his portrayal of a happy, breezy disc jockey who turns out to be a homicidal maniac in The Falcon's Alibi (1946). He also had a substantial, though uncredited role as Bobo in the 1953 film noir production I, the Jury.[citation needed
]

Cook in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Cook meeting a typical sticky end at the hands of Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947)

In addition to his performance as Wilmer in

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), The Outfit (1973), Tom Horn (1980), and Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse (1984).[citation needed
]

Television

Cook appeared on a wide variety of American television series from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. He played a private detective, Homer Garrity, in an episode of

The Dennis Day Show. In 1960, he was cast in the episode "The Hermit" of the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys with Walter Brennan. He appeared too in 1960 as Jeremy Hake in the episode "The Bequest" of the ABC western series The Rebel, which starred Nick Adams. He also portrayed the character Gideon McCoy in the 1966 episode "The Night of the Bars of Hell" on The Wild Wild West. He performed as well in the second episode of ABC's crime drama The Fugitive
.

Cook made two guest appearances on the

The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. In 1974 he made a surprise guest appearance on The Odd Couple as government agent Eliot Ness. He appeared too in The Bionic Woman episode "Once a Thief" in 1977.[citation needed
]

Toward the end of his life, Cook often played dimwitted or cranky elderly characters. He played a bum in an episode of The A-Team as well as an elderly uncle in an episode of Alf, which was one of his last roles prior to his retirement entirely from acting in 1988, followed by his death seven years later.

Personal life

Cook was married to singer Mary Gertrude Dunckley (known professionally as Mary Lou Cook of the popular vocal quartet The Merry Macs) from 1928 until their divorce on November 4, 1941.[6] He then married Illinois native Elvira Ann (Peggy) McKenna in 1943. The couple were married for twenty-five years until they formally divorced in Inyo County, California, in February 1968. They remarried on December 30, 1971.[7] Their second marriage lasted another nineteen years until Peggy's death on December 23, 1990. Various references about Cook state that he had no children from his marriages; yet, his army enlistment record of 1942 documents his marital status as "Divorced, with dependents," which suggests he may have had a child or children with his first wife, or been responsible for the well-being of others.[3]

Cook never became part of the Hollywood social scene, which he held in low regard. His slight build and calm demeanor belied his offscreen status as a rugged outdoorsman. He resided for many years in Bishop, California, but he typically spent his summers at Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada.[1] According to John Huston, who in 1941 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.[8]

Death

Elisha Cook, Jr. died of a

nursing home in Big Pine, California. He was the last surviving member of the main cast of The Maltese Falcon.[1]

Complete filmography

Television credits

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

References

  1. ^
    Thomas Jr., Robert McG. (May 21, 1995). "Elisha Cook Jr., Villain in Many Films, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Elisha Cook Jr., whose intense, bug-eyed portrayal of Wilmer, the psychotic, baby-faced killer in The Maltese Falcon, made him a cult figure to a generation of moviegoers, died on Thursday at a nursing home in Big Pine, California
    . He was 91. He was the last surviving cast member of John Huston's 1941 film noir classic, whose company included Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Mary Astor.
  2. ^ Folkart, Burt A. (1995). "Elisha Cook Jr., 91; Classic Movie Villain", Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1995. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946: Cook Jr, Elisha V., enlistment date August 15, 1942, Los Angeles, California, United States; merged database with "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938–1946," Access to Archival Databases (AAD), National Archives and Records Administration (2002), National Archives, College Park, Maryland. Transcription of enlistment record available at FamilySearch, a free online genealogical database by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  4. ^ WWII US Army Enlistment Records, 1938–46
  5. ^ "Her Unborn Child (1930)", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Turner Broadcasting System, a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc., New York City, New York. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  6. ^ Long Beach Independent; May 30, 1944; Page 10; Find Liver Ailment Causes Singers Death
  7. ^ "California Divorce Index, 1966–1984", divorce of Elvira A. McKenna and Elisha V. Cook, February 1968, Inyo County, California. California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, CA. Transcribed document available on FamilySearch, a free online genealogical database provided as a free public service by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  8. ISBN 978-0-306-80573-8
    .

Further reading

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elisha Cook, Jr..
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elisha_Cook_Jr.&oldid=1208569181"