Jack Lambert was an American character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

 born in Yonkers, New York

Yonkers, New York

Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...

 specializing in playing movie tough guys and heavies. Best known for playing the psychotic cat-loving, iron-hooked Steve "the Claw" Michael in Dick Tracy's Dilemma

Dick Tracy's Dilemma

Dick Tracy's Dilemma is a 1947 film starring Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy. It is the third part of the Dick Tracy quadrilogy.-Plot summary:...

.

Following a stint on Broadway, Lambert moved to Hollywood and began working in films in 1942. Lambert was a familiar figure in Westerns and crime dramas after World War II, in such movies as Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly is a 1955 film noir drama produced and directed by Robert Aldrich starring Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre. The film...

, Vera Cruz

Vera Cruz (film)

Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Technicolor Western starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, and featuring Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel, and Cesar Romero. The movie was directed by Robert Aldrich from a story by Borden Chase...

, The Killers

The Killers (1946 film)

The Killers is a 1946 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak. It is based in part on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The film features Burt Lancaster in his screen debut, as well as Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, and Sam Levene...

, Bend of the River

Bend of the River

Bend of the River is a 1952 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second collaboration. The film is based on the novel Bend of the Snake by Bill Gulick.-Plot:...

, How the West Was Won

How the West Was Won (film)

How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

, and The Enforcer

The Enforcer (1951 film)

The Enforcer is a black-and-white 1951 film noir starring Humphrey Bogart. Based on the Murder, Inc. trials, the film is largely a police procedural directed by Bretaigne Windust with uncredited help from Raoul Walsh, who shot most of the film's suspenseful moments, including the ending...

. He also appeared in many television series of the 50's and 60's like Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...

, Wagon Train

Wagon Train

Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

, Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

, Get Smart

Get Smart

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

, etc., and he was a regular on Riverboat

Riverboat

A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...

.

He is often confused with Jack Lambert

Jack Lambert (British actor)

Jack Lambert was a British film and television actor.-Selected filmography:* Red Ensign * The Ghost Goes West * Premiere * Nine Men * Floodtide * The Lost Hours...

 a British character actor of the same name, as well as the former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert.

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