Daniel Elam

Daniel Elam's career spanned from the 1950s through the 1980s and ran the full gambit of stereotypes that Hollywood had of African Americans at the time. But like a true professors he always did what was asked of him no matter what role he was asked to portray. Like most African Americans, a majority of Elam's work in the 1950s were African native sequences in shows like Ramar of the Jungle, Soldiers of Fortune, and in movies like the Disembodied. He persevered where a lot of people quit to find regular jobs as porters or other task of the day. With the civil rights movements of the 1960s, Elam's career took a new course. Gone were the days of the tribal scenes and he was now cast as a caterer or a diplomat or a waiter in various films and shows and by the 1970s Elam was now able to play roles including your typical workman, detectives, or even a cowboy if the situation called for it.. He worked through the early 1980s when he retired until he passed away in 1990.