Elisha Cook Jr.

Actor

About

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Also Known As

Elisha Cook

Birth Place

San Francisco, California, USA

Born

December 26, 1903

Died

May 18, 1995

Cause of Death

Complications From A Stroke

Biography

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Diminutive, wiry character player memorable for his numerous roles as cowardly villians and neurotics. Originally from vaudeville and the Broadway stage, Cook, who briefly entered films in 1929 before returning to the stage, made a strong impression with his definitive sniveling gunsel in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), and followed with similar roles as weaklings or sadistic loser-hoods: H...

Filmography

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The Champ (1979)

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)

El Condor (1970)

The Great Bank Robbery (1969)

Photos & Videos

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Maltese Falcon, The (1941) -- (Movie Clip) I Like To Talk

Killing, The (1956) -- (Movie Clip) These Two Other Guys

Family & Companions

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Mary Lou Cook

Wife

Actor. Married in 1929; divorced in 1942; died in 1944.

Biography

Diminutive, wiry character player memorable for his numerous roles as cowardly villians and neurotics. Originally from vaudeville and the Broadway stage, Cook, who briefly entered films in 1929 before returning to the stage, made a strong impression with his definitive sniveling gunsel in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), and followed with similar roles as weaklings or sadistic loser-hoods: Harry Jones in "The Big Sleep" (1946) and George Peatty in Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956) over a more than sixty-year career.

Filmography

Cast (Feature Film)

The Champ (1979)

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)

El Condor (1970)

The Great Bank Robbery (1969)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Welcome to Hard Times (1967)

The Glass Cage (1964)

Blood on the Arrow (1964)

Johnny Cool (1963)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

Black Zoo (1963)

Papa's Delicate Condition (1963)

One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

Platinum High School (1960)

College Confidential (1960)

Day of the Outlaw (1959)

House on Haunted Hill (1958)

Watson Pritchard

Baby Face Nelson (1957)

Chicago Confidential (1957)

Candymouth [Duggan]

Plunder Road (1957)

The Lonely Man (1957)

Voodoo Island (1957)

Martin Schuyler

Accused of Murder (1956)

The Killing (1956)

The Indian Fighter (1955)

Timberjack (1955)

Drum Beat (1954)

The Outlaw's Daughter (1954)

Lewis "Tulsa" Cook

Thunder Over the Plains (1953)

Stonewall Torrey

I, the Jury (1953)

Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

Behave Yourself! (1951)

The Great Gatsby (1949)

Flaxy Martin (1949)

The Gangster (1947)

The Long Night (1947)

Born to Kill (1947)

Marty [Waterman]

Fall Guy (1947)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Cinderella Jones (1946)

Oliver S. Patch

Joe Palooka, Champ (1946)

Two Smart People (1946)

Blonde Alibi (1946)

The Falcon's Alibi (1946)

Dillinger (1945)

Why Girls Leave Home (1945)

Up in Arms (1944)

Phantom Lady (1944)

Dark Mountain (1944)

Dark Waters (1944)

Manila Calling (1942)

A Gentleman at Heart (1942)

A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)

Sleepytime Gal (1942)

[Harold] Chicopee Nevins

Ball of Fire (1942)

Sergeant York (1941)

Hellzapoppin' (1941)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

Man at Large (1941)

Love Crazy (1941)

Elevator boy [Jimmy]

Tin Pan Alley (1940)

He Married His Wife (1940)

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

Elsa Maxwell's Public Deb No. 1 (1940)

Grand Jury Secrets (1939)

Norman Hazlitt/Robert Austin

My Lucky Star (1938)

Newsboys' Home (1938)

Submarine Patrol (1938)

Three Blind Mice (1938)

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937)

Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937)

Love Is News (1937)

Egbert Eggleston

Breezing Home (1937)

They Won't Forget (1937)

The Devil Is Driving (1937)

Danger - Love at Work (1937)

Life Begins in College (1937)

Two in a Crowd (1936)

Pigskin Parade (1936)

Herbert Van Dyke

Her Unborn Child (1930)

Stewart Kennedy

Life Events

1921

Stage actor

1926

Made Broadway debut, "Henry- Behave"

1929

Feature acting debut, "Her Unborn Child"

Videos

Maltese Falcon, The (1941) -- (Movie Clip) I Like To Talk Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) visits the San Francisco hotel suite of "the fat man" Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), who refuses to explain his interest in the black bird, in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, 1941.

Killing, The (1956) -- (Movie Clip) These Two Other Guys Ex-con Johnny (Sterling Hayden) briefing his cohorts, Joe Sawyer as Mike, Ted de Corsia as cop Randy, Jay C. Flippen as Marvin and Elisha Cook as racetrack employee George, whose wife Sherry (Marie Windsor) turns out to be listening-in, in Stanley Kubrick’s heist drama The Killing, 1956.

Drum Beat (1954) -- (Movie Clip) I See Brass Buttons Oregon, 1872, merchant Crackel (Elisha Cook Jr.) hurries to tell troublesom Modoc war chief Captain Jack (Charles Bronson) of the new peace negotiator sent from Washington (Alan Ladd, who also co-produced, as Mackay), tangling also with military veteran and rancher Meek (Richard Cutting), in Delmer Daves Drum Beat, 1954.

Life Begins In College (1937) -- (Movie Clip) The Flower Of Young Womanhood This is the wind-up of the preliminaries, before the starring Ritz Brothers appear, with mean jocks (led by Dick Baldwin, and a young Elisha Cook Jr.) pranking on Indian freshman George (Nat Pendleton), and co-ed Janet (Gloria Stuart) gets unwillingly involved, in the 20th Century-Fox comedy vehicle Life Begins In College, 1937.

Phantom Lady (1944) -- (Movie Clip) It Would Be Fun To Laugh Nobody gets a name here, the actors are Alan Curtis, Fay Helm, and Andrew Tombes as the bartender, Robert Siodmak directing, from the first novel by writer Cornell Woolrich written under his “William Irish” pseudonym, in Phantom Lady, 1944, also starring Ella Raines and Franchot Tone.

Phantom Lady (1944) -- (Movie Clip) You Sure Know How To Beat It Out Incredible scene from director Robert Siodmak and cinematographer Woody Bredell, heretofore reserved Carol (Ella Raines) now vamped up to get at jazz drummer Cliff (Elisha Cook Jr.), who’s known to be hiding evidence that could have cleared her boss, who’s been convicted of murder, best-known men in the band are Barney Bigard on clarinet and Freddie Slack on piano, in Phantom Lady, 1944.

Phantom Lady (1944) -- (Movie Clip) A Pair Of Hands Carol (Ella Raines), hoping to get her bosses’ murder conviction reversed, flees the rooms of drummer Cliff (Elisha Cook Jr.), after he realized she was seducing him to get information, so as she calls her cop friend, we meet top-billed Franchot Tone, nearly 50 minutes into the picture, who seems to be the guy who paid him to lie, in Phantom Lady, 1944.

Shane (1953) -- (Movie Clip) The Sovereign State Of Alabama From director George Stevens, a key scene featuring none of his principals, merchant Grafton (Paul McVey) greets farmer Torrey (Elisha Cook Jr.), summoning courage before ranchers (Emile Meyer, John Dierkes) and their new hired gun (Jack Palance), marking Independence Day, in Shane, 1953.

Born To Kill (1947) -- (Movie Clip) Blood All Over The Place Both quite mad and given to dissertation, Sam (Lawrence Tierney) and Helen (Claire Trevor) discuss their marriages of convenience, interrupted by Marty (Elisha Cook Jr.) in Robert Wise's Born To Kill, 1947.

Love Crazy (1941) -- (Movie Clip) Primping Since Breakfast Opening scenes introducing William Powell as cheery architect Steve and Myrna Loy his wife Susan, both readying themselves for their fourth anniversary date, from Love Crazy, 1941, the eighth-released of their 13 films together, featuring Gail Patrick and Jack Carson.

Love Crazy (1941) -- (Movie Clip) I'm Stuck For Life Architect Steve (William Powell) has just mailed a letter for his wife (Myrna Loy, not seen here), returning home for their anniversary date, when he meets old flame Isobel (Gail Patrick) on the lift, Elisha Cook Jr. the operator, in MGM's Love Crazy, 1941.

Dillinger (1945) -- (Movie Clip) Too Free With A Gun The end of the fact-based springing of his gang from an Indiana prison by the title character (Lawrence Tierney), then a spree montage, then Specs (Edmund Lowe) supervising the crew (Elisha Cook Jr., Marc Lawrence, Eduardo Cianelli), Anne Jeffreys the moll, in Monogram Pictures' Dillinger, 1945.

Blacula - (Original Trailer) An African prince (William Marshall) bitten by Dracula stalks the Los Angeles night as Blacula (1972).

Maltese Falcon, The (1941) -- (Original Trailer) Humphrey Bogart plays Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941), possibly the greatest detective movie of all time.

Flaxy Martin - (Original Trailer) Messing with a mobster's girlfriend gets a lawyer framed for murder in Flaxy Martin (1949) starring Virginia Mayo, Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone and Elisha Cook, Jr.

1941 - (Original Trailer) Panic sweeps Hollywood when a Japanese invasion is suspected in Steven Spielberg's gigantic farce 1941 (1979).

One-Eyed Jacks - (Original Trailer) An outlaw seeks revenge on the former friend who betrayed him to the law in One Eyed Jacks (1961), directed by and starring Marlon Brando.

Rosemary's Baby - (Original Trailer) A young woman (Mia Farrow) fears the baby she's carrying is the son of Satan in Rosemary's Baby (1968), directed by Roman Polanski and based on the bestseller by Ira Levin.

Ball Of Fire - (Original Trailer) A stuffy professor (Gary Cooper) takes in a sexy showgirl (Barbara Stanwyck) to study her syntax in Howard Hawks' Ball Of Fire (1942).

Cinderella Jones - (Original Trailer) Joan Leslie has to find and marry a genius to inherit $10 million in Busby Berkeley's musical Cinderella Jones (1946).

Two Smart People - (Original Trailer) A lady crook (Lucille Ball) tries to steal a con man's hidden loot in Two Smart People (1946).

They Won't Forget - (Original Trailer) Bigotry flares when a Jewish businessman is accused of killing a small-town girl in the South in They Won't Forget (1937) starring Claude Rains.

House On Haunted Hill, The - (Original Trailer) The owner of a haunted mansion (Vincent Price) offers $10,000 to anyone who'll spend an entire night in The House On Haunted Hill (1959).

Electra Glide in Blue - (Original Trailer) An Arizona motorcycle cop (Robert Blake) moves to the Homicide Division to solve a hermit's murder in Electra Glide in Blue (1973).

Family

Elisha Cook

Father

Helen Henry

Mother

Actor.

Companions

Mary Lou Cook

Wife

Actor. Married in 1929; divorced in 1942; died in 1944.

Bibliography

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