Jack Lambert (American actor)

John Taylor Lambert 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, Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, Sugarfoot, Tales of Wells Fargo, Daniel Boone, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Get Smart and The Andy Griffith Show From 1959 to 1960, Lambert was a regular cast member, 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. 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.