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Elisha Cook Jr.
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From All Movie Guide: American actor Elisha Cook Jr. was the son of an influential theatrical actor/writer/producer who died early in the 20th Century. The younger Cook was in vaudeville and stock by the time he was fourteen-years old. In 1928, Cook enjoyed critical praise for his performance in the play Her Unborn Child, a performance he would repeat for his film debut in the 1930 film version of the play. The first ten years of Cook's Hollywood career found the slight, baby-faced actor playing innumerable college intellectuals and hapless freshmen (he's given plenty of screen time in 1936's Pigskin Parade). In 1940, Cook was cast as a man wrongly convicted of murder in Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), and so was launched the second phase of Cook's career as Helpless Victim. The actor's ability to play beyond this stereotype was first tapped by director John Huston, who cast Cook as Wilmer, the hair-trigger homicidal "gunsel" of Sidney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon (1941).
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One of the most familiar character actors of the mid-twentieth century, small-statured Elisha Cook Jr. would be a Hollywood immortal if only for his roles in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Shane (1953). He attended St. Albans College and the Chicago Academy of Dramatic Art, and made his stage debut at age fourteen. He appeared in vaudeville and stock and on Broadway "Lightnin'", "Kingdom of God", "Henry Behave", "Many a Slip", "Ah, Wilderness!" and "Her Unborn Child". He made his film debut in the film version of Her Unborn Child (1930), but did not make the transition to full-time film actor until 1936. His appearance of timidity and wistfulness was counterbalanced by a surprising ferocity, and he quickly became a staple in movies playing both sympathetic and vicious characters. Although he returned occasionally to the stage in such works as Bertolt Brecht's "Arturo Ui", and he worked frequently on television, his career was concentrated on the screen.
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Legendary tough-guy actor Elisha Cook Jr. appears as Uncle Albert, Willie's least favorite relative. Paying a visit to the Tanners, the irascible Albert insists that he's undergone a character transformation and is now a sweetheart. But no one will ever know if this is true: After taking one look at ALF, Albert drops dead of a heart attack! All of this has a remarkable effect on ALF, who, though he's perpetrated a lot of mischief in the past, has up until now never actually killed anyone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Elisha Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 San Francisco, California – May 18, 1995) was a weaselly American character actor, best remembered as the neurotic gun-toting thug Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon (1941). He lent welcome support to a number of horror films, invariably ending up as a victim in such titles as Voodoo Island (1957), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Blacula (1972), Messiah of Evil (1973); The Phantom of Hollywood (1974), The Night Stalker (1975), Dead of Night (1976) and 'Salem’s Lot (1979). Cook is ... well remembered for his role as defense attorney Samuel T. Cogley in the Star Trek episode "Court Martial."
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American actor Elisha Cook Jr. was the son of an influential theatrical actor/writer/producer who died early in the 20th Century. The younger Cook was in vaudeville and stock by the time he was fourteen-years old. In 1928, Cook enjoyed critical praise for his performance in the play Her Unborn Child, a performance he would repeat for his film debut in the 1930 film version of the play. The first ten years of Cook's Hollywood career found the slight, baby-faced actor playing innumerable college intellectuals and hapless freshmen (he's given plenty of screen time in 1936's "Pigskin Parade"). In 1940, Cook was cast as a man wrongly convicted of murder in "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940), and so was launched the second phase of Cook's career as Helpless Victim.
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To top it all off in the highest possible style, the immortal Elisha Cook, Jr., has a walk-on as a waiter. You probably won’t know his name unless you have your film trivia down pat, but the chances are very, very good that you’ll recognize his face, for Cook, who died in 1995, made his first film in 1930 and his last TV episode in 1988, in between which he played small but splendidly vivid parts in such movies as The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Shane, The Killing, One-Eyed Jacks, and Rosemary’s Baby.
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