A short, tough man, Jaeckel played a variety of characters during his 50 years in films and television. Jaeckel got his start in the business at the age of seventeen while he was employed as a mailboy at
20th Century Fox studios in Hollywood. A casting director auditioned him for a role in the 1943 film
Guadalcanal Diary; Jaeckel won the role and settled into a lengthy career in supporting parts. He served in the
United States Merchant Marine from 1944 to 1946, then starred in two of the most remembered war films of 1949:
Battleground and
Sands of Iwo Jima with
John Wayne. One of Jaeckel's shortest film roles was in
The Gunfighter, in which his character is killed by
Gregory Peck's character in the opening scene. He played the role of Turk, the roomer's boyfriend, in the
Academy Award-winning 1952 film
Come Back, Little Sheba, with
Shirley Booth,
Burt Lancaster, and
Terry Moore. In 1960, he appeared as Angus Pierce in the Western,
Flaming Star, starring
Elvis Presley. He played
Lee Marvin's able second-in-command, Sgt. Bowren, in the 1967 film
The Dirty Dozen for director
Robert Aldrich, and reprised the role in the 1985 sequel,
The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission. Jaeckel appeared in several other Aldrich films, including
Big Leaguer (1953),
Attack (1956), ''
Ulzana's Raid (1972), and Twilight's Last Gleaming'' (1977). He guest-starred in many television programs. He was cast as a boxer in a 1954 episode of
Reed Hadley's
CBS legal drama,
The Public Defender. Also in 1954, Jaeckel portrayed
Billy the Kid in an episode of the
syndicated Western anthology series,
Stories of the Century, with
Jim Davis as the fictitious Southwest Railroad detective Matt Clark. Seven years later, Jaeckel played "Denver" in "The Grudge Fight" episode of the
NBC Western series
The Tall Man. In 1957, he appeared as Mort Claffey in two episodes, "Paratroop Padre" and "The Light," of the syndicated religion anthology series,
Crossroads. That same year, he portrayed Lieutenant Bradshaw in episode "War of the Whale Boats" of the military drama,
Navy Log. In 1956-57, he appeared in three episodes of another military drama,
The West Point Story. In 1955 and 1958, Jaeckel appeared in different roles on two episodes of CBS's fantasy drama
The Millionaire. In 1958, Jaeckel guest-starred as Webb Martin in the episode "The Bloodline" of NBC's Western series
Cimarron City. That same year, he appeared in the syndicated drama of the
American Civil War,
Gray Ghost in the episode entitled "The Hero". In 1959, he was cast as Clint Gleason in episode "The Man Behind the Star" of CBS's
The Texan Western series, starring
Rory Calhoun. In 1960, Jaeckel appeared twice on
Nick Adams's ABC Western series,
The Rebel, as Marshal Roader in "The Rattler" and as Clyde Traskel in "Run, Killer, Run". During the 1961-62 season, Jaeckel had a starring role (with
John Derek and
Chill Wills) on CBS'
Frontier Circus, an adventure drama about a one-ring circus traveling the American West during the 1880's. Jaeckel's character Tony Gentry served as an advance location scout for the circus in addition to assisting John Derek's circus manager Ben Travis. Jaeckel appeared in all 26 episodes with featured player roles in several episodes, most notably "Karina" opposite
Elizabeth Montgomery. In 1963, Jaeckel played Willie the murderer in "The Case of the Lover's Leap" on CBS's
Perry Mason, starring
Raymond Burr. That same year he was among the guest stars on the short-lived
ABC/
Warner Brothers Western series,
The Dakotas and in "The Predators" episode of
Have Gun – Will Travel, Season 6 (1962). Also in 1963, Jaeckel, speaking in German, played the role of
Wehrmacht Sgt. Buxman in the
Combat! TV series episode "Gideon's Army." Finally in that year, he guest starred in the TV Western Series
Gunsmoke in the S8E27 episode "Two of a Kind", playing Irish immigrant mine owner O'Ryan, who was feuding with his partner. Jaeckel appeared in
Alfred Hitchcock Presents "Incident in a Small Jail" (1961) as well as
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes, "Low Clouds and Coastal Fog" (1963), "Death of a Cop (1963), and "Off Season" (1965). In 1964, Jaeckel appeared as Danny in the episode "Keep Cool" of
The New Phil Silvers Show and as Mitch Devlin in an episode of
Bonanza, ″Between Heaven and Earth″. In 1966, Jaeckel made a second guest appearance on
Perry Mason as Mike Woods in the episode "The Case of the Bogus Buccaneers". That same year, he also co-starred as Christopher Cable in an episode – "The Night of the Grand Emir" – of
The Wild Wild West. Also that year he played "Percy Farley", part of a bank robbing gang in a rare two part episode called "The Raid" on
Gunsmoke. He guest-starred in 1967 as Dibbs in the episode "Night of Reckoning" on
Bonanza. Jaeckel's most famous film appearances of the 1950s are in
3:10 to Yuma (1957) and
The Naked and the Dead (1958). His film career achieved its greatest success in the period 1967 to 1975, in such features as
The Dirty Dozen (1967), ''
The Devil's Brigade (1968), Chisum (1970), Sometimes a Great Notion (1971) (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Ulzana's Raid (1972), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), The Outfit (1973), The Drowning Pool (1975), and Walking Tall Part 2 (1975). Chisum
was a John Wayne vehicle in which Jaeckel, Christopher George and Andrew Prine all co-starred in prominent supporting roles. The three would re-team six years later in Grizzly (1976) (an amiable "Jaws" ripoff reset in the forest), and Jaeckel and George would team again in another "nature strikes back" story, Day of the Animals (1977). In 1976, he starred in the B movie Mako: The Jaws of Death''. In 1975, he starred as the title character on the episode "Larkin" on
Gunsmoke (S20E17). In 1977, Jaeckel appeared with
Donna Mills,
Bill Bixby, and
William Shatner in the last episode, entitled "The Scarlet Ribbon", of NBC's Western series
The Oregon Trail, starring
Rod Taylor and
Andrew Stevens. The following year he played Sergeant Lykes in the epic TV miniseries
Centennial. He had a recurring role in the short-lived
Andy Griffith vehicle
Salvage 1 (1979). The later films in his career included a major role in
John Carpenter's 1984 film
Starman as an NSA agent hunting an alien life form played by
Jeff Bridges as well as in the action films
Black Moon Rising with
Tommy Lee Jones and
Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection with
Chuck Norris. In his later years, Jaeckel was known to television audiences as Lt. Ben Edwards on
Baywatch from seasons 2-4. He also played Al Gibson in the Baywatch Pilot. He also co-starred on
Robert Urich's ABC series
Spenser: For Hire in the role of Lieutenant Martin Quirk. ==Personal life==