Film Bad Guy Elisha Cook Is Dead At 91

Elisha Cook Jr., whose intense, bug-eyed portrayal of Wilmer, the psychotic, baby-faced killer in “The Maltese Falcon,” made him a cult figure to a generation of moviegoers, died Thursday at a nursing home in Big Pine, Calif. He was 91.

He was the last surviving cast member of John Huston’s 1941 film noir classic, whose company included Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Mary Astor.

Cook, who made more than 100 movies, once claimed that he had appeared in more “B-for-bomb turkeys” than any other actor. Maybe so, but few actors could claim to have played as many memorable roles in as many recognized classics or to have become the answer to so many Hollywood trivia questions.

He was the “hophead jazz drummer” in “Phantom Lady” (1944). He was Jonesy, the lovesick loser forced to drink poison in “The Big Sleep” (1946). He was the satanic apartment manager in “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968). He was the wife-bedeviled race-track teller in Stanley Kubrick’s first commercial feature, “The Killing” (1956). And he was the homesteader who took an unforgettable dying fall into the mud after being shot by Jack Palance in “Shane” (1953).

He left no immediate survivors.