Veteran character actor Jack Elam has died of congestive heart failure at his home in Oregon. He was 82.

Elam was best known for playing heavys, thugs, and gangsters during a career which spanned more than four decades. His trademark feature was a squinty, wandering eye, which lent him a menacing appearance. He lost sight in the eye at a Boy Scout troop meeting, roughhousing with a fellow scout.

Elam appeared in dozens of TV series, including Cheyenne, Bonanza and Gunsmoke. He performed in over a hundred feature films, including Vera Cruz, Kiss Me Deadly, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Support Your Local Gunfighter and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Elam originally worked as a bookkeeper, theater supervisor and auditor, before offering his accounting services to a film director in exchange for roles in three westerns. The first was 1950's The Sundowners starring Robert Preston, which launched his long career.