Actor Jack Elam could be just as mischievous as the crazy-eyed characters he played in Westerns, say friends who fondly remember him as a quick-witted practical joker.

"What you saw on the screen is what you got," said Don Rist, who became friends with Elam after negotiating the purchase of the actor’s Ashland house in 1987.

Elam died at home Monday from congestive heart failure.

His four-decade career encompassed 100 feature films and hundreds of television appearances.

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"He was an amazing guy and had a magnificent career," his daughter, Jacqueline Elam of Los Angeles, recalled. "He was the greatest dad in the world and inspired all of us to be creative people."

His film credits include "Rawhide," "Support Your Local Sheriff," "Rio Lobo," "High Noon," "Once Upon a Time in the West," and "High Noon at the O.K. Corral."

He was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1994.

Although his age is often listed as 86, his real age was 82 because he once added four years to get a job as an accountant, said Jenny Elam, his wife of 42 years.

Elam’s portrayals of sinister thugs, gangsters and gunslingers were aided by his squinty, wandering left eye. He had lost vision in the eye at age 12 when a fellow Boy Scout jabbed him with a pencil.

Rist remembered Elam’s slightly wicked sense of humor, citing a tale the actor told to a blackjack dealer at Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville.

"He told this dealer that he knew this g—damn real estate crook, referring to me," said Rist, who happened to be a friend of the dealer. "So I called him (Elam) up and said, ‘What’s this bad mouthing me all over the country?’ He told me, ‘I was just telling him the truth.’ "

Despite his sometimes wild nature, Elam had a serious side to his personality that amazed friends.

"He was mentally just as sharp as a tack," said Rist. "He could read a script once, and he had it nailed."

He remembers that Elam’s incredible memory extended to his personal life.

After the actor bought his Ashland house, he had pored over the blueprints of changes he planned to make.

"Somebody referred to one of the changes, but didn’t know where to find it, and he said, "If you go to page 45, it will have the picture on it," said Rist. "He had the damn thing memorized."

Former Mail Tribune staff writer Al Reiss remembers first meeting Elam on the set of "Gunsmoke" in 1966, when they were filming the popular Western starring James Arness.

He remembers Elam once threw a party to celebrate the unveiling of a statute made of him by former Jackson County Sheriff C.W. Smith.

"C.W. said, ‘You know you play a lot of outlaws in movies and I was a sheriff and you know what we did to outlaws," said Reiss. "Jack said, ‘Well, I was an outlaw and you know what we did to sheriffs."

Reiss said other actors would come to Ashland to see their friend.

Once Larry Hagman, who starred in "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Dallas," came to visit, but had misplaced the address.

"He asked a townsperson if he knew Jack Elam’s address, and he was told to just head up to the top of the hill," said Reiss. "Jack said, ‘Everybody knows where I live.’ "

He doubted whether Elam ever went to see an Oregon Shakespeare Festival play, noting that he had a hard enough time getting the actor to come to a production of a play Reiss had written.

"After being very adamant that he wouldn’t be there, he finally showed up," he said.

No services are planned for Elam, who is survived by his wife, three children, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

"It was fun having Jack around," said Reiss. "He is going to be missed."

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com. Bill Choy also contributed to this report.