Elisha Cook Jr.

Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, 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. 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 Cook was born in December 1903 in San Francisco, California, the son of Elisha Vanslyck Cook Sr., a pharmacist, and grew up in Chicago. He first worked in theater lobbies selling programs, but by the age of 14 he was already performing in vaudeville and stock. As a young man, he traveled and honed his acting skills on stages along the East Coast and in the Midwest before arriving in New York City, where in 1926 he debuted on Broadway in Hello, Lola. Some other Broadway productions in which Cook performed were Henry-Behave (1926), Kingdom of God (1928), Her Unborn Child (1928), Many a Slip (1930), Privilege Car (1931), Lost Boy (1932), Merry-Go-Round (1932), and Chrysalis (1932). Then, in 1933, Eugene O'Neill cast him in the role of Richard Miller in his play Ah, Wilderness, which ran on Broadway for two years. 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. Cook enlisted in the United States Army in Los Angeles, California, on August 15, 1942. According to his enlistment record he stood 5-feet-5-inches tall and weighed 123 pounds. Cook's military record documents his level of education at "3 years of high school." Some online references 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.