# Jack Lambert (American actor)

John Taylor Lambert (April 13, 1920 – February 18, 2002) was an American character actor who specialized in playing movie tough guys and heavies. He is best known for playing the psychotic cat-loving, iron-hooked Steve "the Claw" Michel in Dick Tracy's Dilemma.

## Career

Following a spell on Broadway, the Yonkers, New York-born Lambert moved to Hollywood and began working in films in 1942. He was a familiar figure in Westerns and crime dramas after World War II, in such movies as The Killers with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, The Enforcer with Humphrey Bogart, Bend of the River with James Stewart, Vera Cruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, Kiss Me Deadly with Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer, and How the West Was Won.
Lambert also appeared in many television series of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Rod Cameron's State Trooper, twice on Bat Masterson (1959 in S1E22's "Incident in Leadville" and again in 1961 in S3E19's "Bullwhacker’s Bounty"), Gunsmoke (as all evil gunman Kin Creed in the 1959 S4E35 episode “There Never Was A Horse”, where he likely was the only man in the show's 20 year run who ever outdrew Matt Dillon - but missed), Have Gun – Will Travel, Sugarfoot, Tales of Wells Fargo, Daniel Boone, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Get Smart (season one, episode 18, 1966) and The Andy Griffith Show (season three, episode 32, 1963, "The Big House") From 1959 to 1960, Lambert was a regular cast member (as Joshua Walcek, sometimes called "Joshua MacGregor"), in 23 of the 42 episodes of the Darren McGavin series, Riverboat.

## Personal life

In 1959 Lambert moved into a home in Palm Springs, California, owned by his wife Marjorie Franklin (who owned the home with her divorced husband Alexander Hall). He had a son, Lee J. Lambert.
Lambert is not to be confused with the British character actor with the same name who died in 1976.

## Partial filmography

| Year | Film | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1943 | Stage Door Canteen | Sailor Cutting In with Ina Claire | Frank Borzage | uncredited |
| 1943 | Follies Girl | Unconfirmed Bit Part | | uncredited |
| 1943 | Bomber's Moon | Curly | Edward Ludwig (as "Charles Fuhr") Harold D. Schuster (as "Charles Fuhr") John Brahm (uncredited) Robert Florey (2nd unit aerial sequences) | tail gunner |
| 1943 | Hostages | SS guard | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1943 | Seeds of Freedom | Speaker | | |
| 1943 | Swing Fever | Jack (Conlon's Henchman) | Tim Whelan | uncredited |
| 1943 | The Cross of Lorraine | Jacques | Tay Garnett | |
| 1943 | Lost Angel | Lefty Moran | Roy Rowland | uncredited |
| 1944 | The Canterville Ghost | Trigger, Machine Gunner | Norman Z. McLeod (uncredited) | uncredited |
| 1944 | Till We Meet Again | Drunken German Soldier | Frank Borzage | uncredited |
| 1945 | The Hidden Eye | Louie | Richard Whorf | |
| 1945 | Duffy's Tavern | Waiter | Hal Walker | uncredited |
| 1946 | Abilene Town | Jet Younger | Edwin L. Marin | |
| 1946 | The Harvey Girls | Marty Peters | Robert Alton | |
| 1946 | The Hoodlum Saint | Minor Role | Norman Taurog | uncredited |
| 1946 | O.S.S. | SS Lieutenant | Irving Pichel | uncredited |
| 1946 | The Killers | 'Dum-Dum' Clarke | Robert Siodmak | |
| 1946 | Plainsman and the Lady | Sival | Joseph Kane | |
| 1947 | New Orleans | Biff Lewis | Arthur Lubin | |
| 1947 | Dick Tracy's Dilemma | Steve 'The Claw' Michel | John Rawlins | |
| 1947 | The Vigilantes Return | Henchman Ben Borden | Ray Taylor | |
| 1947 | The Unsuspected | Mr. Press | Michael Curtiz | |
| 1948 | Reaching from Heaven | Buck Huggins | Frank Strayer | |
| 1948 | River Lady | Swede | George Sherman | |
| 1948 | Belle Starr's Daughter | Bronc Wilson | Lesley Selander | |
| 1948 | Disaster | Frosty Davenport | | |
| 1948 | Force of Evil | | Abraham Polonsky | uncredited |
| 1949 | Big Jack | Bud Valentine | Richard Thorpe | |
| 1949 | The Great Gatsby | Reba | Elliott Nugent | |
| 1949 | Yes Sir, That's My Baby | Leslie Schultze | George Sherman | |
| 1949 | Brimstone | Luke Courteen | Joseph Kane | |
| 1949 | Border Incident | Chuck | Anthony Mann | uncredited |
| 1950 | Dakota Lil | Dummy | Lesley Selander | |
| 1950 | Stars in My Crown | Perry Lokey | Jacques Tourneur | |
| 1950 | North of the Great Divide | Henchman Stagg | William Witney | |
| 1951 | The Enforcer | Philadelphia Tom Zaca | Bretaigne Windust | |
| 1951 | The Secret of Convict Lake | Matt Anderson | Michael Gordon | uncredited |
| 1952 | Bend of the River | Red | Anthony Mann | |
| 1952 | Montana Belle | Ringo | Allan Dwan | |
| 1952 | Blackbeard the Pirate | Tom Whetstone | Raoul Walsh | |
| 1953 | Scared Stiff | Zombie | George Marshall | |
| 1953 | 99 River Street | Mickey | Phil Karlson | |
| 1954 | Vera Cruz | Charlie | Robert Aldrich | |
| 1955 | Run for Cover | Larsen | Nicholas Ray | |
| 1955 | Kiss Me Deadly | Sugar Smallhouse | Robert Aldrich | |
| 1955 | At Gunpoint | Kirk | Alfred L. Werker | |
| 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Baldy | Herschel Daugherty | Season 2 Episode 11: "The Better Bargain" |
| 1956 | Backlash | Mike Benton | John Sturges | |
| 1956 | Canyon River | Kincaid | Harmon Jones | |
| 1957 | Chicago Confidential | Smitty | Sidney Salkow | uncredited |
| 1958 | Machine-Gun Kelly | Howard | Roger Corman | |
| 1958 | Hot Car Girl | Cop #1 at soda bar | Bernard L. Kowalski | |
| 1958 | Party Girl | Nick | Nicholas Ray | uncredited |
| 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Hitman | Bretaigne Windust | Season 4 Episode 26: "Cheap is Cheap" |
| 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Garage Mechanic | Herschel Daugherty | Season 5 Episode 4: "Coyote Moon" |
| 1959 | Alias Jesse James | Snake Brice | Norman Z. McLeod | uncredited |
| 1959 | Day Of The Outlaw | Tex | Andre de Toth | Bruhn's gang |
| 1960 | Freckles | Duncan | Andrew McLaglen | |
| 1961 | The George Raft Story | Jerry Fitzpatrick | Joseph M. Newman | |
| 1962 | How the West Was Won | Gant Henchman | | uncredited |
| 1963 | 4 for Texas | Monk | Robert Aldrich | |
* New York (state) portal
* California portal
* Film portal
* Television portal