Elisha Cook Jr., 91, the diminutive character actor who played the hired gun humiliated by Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon" and the homesteader shot by Jack Palance in "Shane," died May 18 in Big Pine, Calif. The cause of death was not reported.
"The Maltese Falcon" was Mr. Cook's favorite movie. "There wasn't one decent person in the whole film," he once said of the 1941 classic.
In the John Huston-directed film, based on Dashiel Hammett's hard-boiled private eye novel, Mr. Cook played the role of Wilmer, a "gunsel" working for "the Fat Man," played by Sydney Greenstreet.
At one point, Bogart, as detective Sam Spade, strips Wilmer of his pistols and laughs at the ease with which he accomplishes the task.
Bogart presents the captured weapons to Wilmer's boss and jokes acridly, "crippled newsboy took these away. . . . I made him give 'em back."
The bug-eyed double-take of Wilmer remained a memorable screen moment.
Mr. Cook's other film credits included "Sergeant York," "I Wake Up Screaming," "The Big Sleep," "Rosemary's Baby," "Tin Pan Alley," "Ball of Fire," "I Wake Up Screaming," "In This Our Life," "Dillinger," "The Great Gatsby" and "Welcome to Hard Times." The 1982 movie "Hammett," a fictional story about the author of "The Maltese Falcon," was the last feature film in which Mr. Cook appeared.
He leaves no immediate survivors. DANIEL J. SWILLINGER Washington Lawyer
Daniel J. Swillinger, 52, a Washington lawyer who specialized in ethics and elections law, died May 20 at the Washington Home and Hospice. He had Crohn's disease, a gastrointestinal disorder.
Mr. Swillinger, who lived in Washington, was a Cincinnati native. He was a journalism graduate of Ohio State University and a 1967 graduate of its law school.
He came to Washington in 1967 as a clerk to Court of Claims Judge Marion T. Bennett and then served on the Capitol Hill staffs of Rep. Robert Taft Jr. (R-Ohio) and Rep. William Widnall (R-N.J.). He worked for the Ripon Society, a moderate Republican organization, before returning to Ohio in 1973.
He was an assistant dean of the Ohio State University law school for two years before returning to Washington in 1975. He spent two years as assistant general counsel of the Federal Election Commission. He was deputy special counsel to the Senate ethics committee's investigation of the "Koreagate" scandal before entering the private practice of law in 1979.
His clients included Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and the presidential campaigns of John B. Anderson and Pierre S. (Pete) duPont IV, as well as congressional candidates and various political action committees.
Mr. Swillinger was a member of the American Bar Association's election law committee. He was a member of St. Columba's Episcopal Church in Washington and had been chairman of the church's outreach steering committee. He was a founder and board member of the Friendship Place Community Resource Center, a Washington day center for the homeless.
Survivors include his wife of 19 years, Lois G. Williams, and a son, Patrick, both of Washington. ROBERT B. MEYER JR. Museum Official
Robert Bensen Meyer Jr., 74, who retired from the Smithsonian Institution in 1980 as curator of aeropropulsion at its National Air and Space Museum, died May 17 at his home in Potomac after a heart attack.
Mr. Meyer, who came to the Washington area in 1954, was a native of Locust Valley, N.Y. He was a Yale University graduate and a World War II Army Air Forces veteran.
He worked as an insurance broker before joining the Smithsonian in 1959, where he worked on air and space matters. After retiring from the Smithsonian, he became a docent at the Air & Space Museum's storage and restoration facility in Silver Hill.
Over the years, Mr. Meyer also had been affiliated with the Cord Meyer Development Co. of Forest Hills, N.Y. He had served on the company's board and as treasurer and general partner of two partnerships within the company.
He was a member of St. Francis Episcopal Church and the West Montgomery Citizens Association, both in Potomac, as well as the Bentley Drivers and Rolls Royce Owners clubs.
Survivors include his wife, Maria Teresa, of Potomac; five children, Katharine Meyer of Potomac, Maria Teresa Prendergast of Miami, Carlos Meyer of Leesburg, Ana Maria Hill of Denver and Carmen Vasquez of Austin; and two grandchildren. JAMES RANDOLPH HICKMAN Technology Manager
James Randolph Hickman, 57, a technology manger with WIN Laboratories Ltd., a Manassas computer manufacturer and systems company, died of a cerebral hemorrhage May 14 at a hospital in Richmond. He lived in Clifton.
Mr. Hickman was born in Montgomery County, Pa., and raised in Arnold. He was a graduate of the Severn School and Washington and Lee University. He received master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was an instructor in electrical engineering until 1971.
He was a technology manager for companies in Texas and New York and returned to the Washington area in 1988 to be director of technology for Dynatech Corp. He joined WIN Laboratories last year.
Mr. Hickman was a member of Church of the Epiphany in Herndon.
Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Luta Marguerite Hickman of Clifton; two sons, Thomas K. Hickman of Lilburn, Ga., and David A. Hickman of Phoenix; his mother, Margaret Hickman of Arnold; two brothers, Ward Hickman of Langhorne, Pa., and Fred Hickman of Edgewater; and a granddaughter. CLARENCE E. HARLOWE Businessman
Clarence Edwin Harlowe, 81, president of Harlowe Typography of Cottage City and the past president of the Printing Industry of Metropolitan Washington and the Typography International Association, died of cancer May 18 at his home in Mayo.
Mr. Harlowe, who was born in Missouri, came to the Washington area in the early 1930s. He was a graduate of Southeastern University. He joined the family business, founded by an uncle, at an early age when it was located in Washington. It later moved to Cottage City, and Mr. Harlowe was its president until his death.
Over the years, he had been a member of Brightwood Methodist Church in Washington and Marvin United Methodist Church in Silver Spring. Since moving from Silver Spring to Mayo in 1977, he had attended Mayo United Methodist Church.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, the former Marguerite Orr, of Mayo; a son, Ronald, of Harwood; two daughters, Barbara Mauchamer of Silver Spring and Jane Adams of Trappe, Md.; a sister, Thelma Brayall of Phoenix; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. FRANCIS H. EDWARDS Telephone Official
Francis Howard Edwards, 87, who worked for Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone for 42 years before retiring in 1970 as a district plant manager and staff supervisor, died May 18 at the Brooke Grove nursing home in Olney. He died of heart and kidney complications following hip surgery.
Mr. Edwards, who lived at Leisure World in Silver Spring, was a Washington native. He attended Bliss Electrical School in Washington.
He was a member of Woodside Methodist Church in Silver Spring and an associate member of the Leisure World Inter-Faith Chapel. He also was a member of the Alexander Graham Bell chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America and a charter member of the Civil War Roundtable of Washington.
Survivors include his wife of 64 years, the former Josephine Stanton, of Leisure World; two sons, John Howard Edwards of Baldwin, Md., and David Stanton Edwards of Montross, Va.; a sister, Florence Brooke of Salem, Va.; two brothers, Clyde, of Clearwater, Fla., and George David, of Bowie; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. ANNA M. GELMAN Hecht Co. Employee
Anna Miriam Gelman, 87, a retired Hecht Co. employee who was a member of Beth-El Congregation of Montgomery County in Bethesda and the congregation's seniors group, died May 18 at her home in the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville. She had cancer and a heart ailment.
Mrs. Gelman, who was born in Romania, came to the United States after World War I and to the Washington area in 1963. She lived in Silver Spring before moving to the Hebrew Home about five years ago.
Before moving to the Washington area, she held a variety of jobs in the New York area, including managing a stationery and candy store. She worked for Hecht's, where she was a crafts department manager in the Silver Spring store, for about 10 years before retiring in 1976.
Her husband, Samuel, died in 1963. Survivors include a son, Melvyn, of Silver Spring; two daughters, Helen Rib of Potomac and Gloria Mackalis of Cape Cod, Mass.; two sisters, Esther Reiss of Phoenix and Pearl Lipper of Queens, N.Y.; nine grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. GLIDIE DECATUR Safeway Checker
Glidie Alwine Phillips Decatur, 88, a checker with Safeway stores for 20 years before retiring in 1970 from the outlet on upper Connecticut Avenue in Washington, died May 18 at Birmingham Green's nursing home in Manassas. She died of complications after a broken leg.
Mrs. Decatur, who was born in Arcola, was a graduate of Mary Washington Teachers College in Fredericksburg, Va. An area resident since 1926, she lived in Alexandria.
She was a member of the Selah Christian Ministries in Springfield and Local No. 400 of the Safeway Retirees.
Her husband of 57 years, Charles Carroll Decatur, died in 1984. Survivors include two daughters, Virginia Carolyn Flynn of Manassas and Sandra Marie Emerson of Alexandria; a brother, Chester Phillips of Bethesda; and four sisters, Belvia Clark of Alexandria, Bessie McDermot of Silver Spring, Lucille White of Newport News and Hannah Buzzone of Cranford, N.J. LOIS H. VEDDER Paralegal Specialist
Lois H. Vedder, 53, who had been a paralegal specialist with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the past two years, died of cancer May 17 at her home in Washington.
Ms. Vedder, a Washington native, was a graduate of St. Anthony's Catholic School and George Washington University. She received a master's degree in psychological counseling from Boston University.
From about 1962 to 1972, she was an intelligence analyst in West Germany with the Army. She lived in Germany until her husband, Klaus Dieter Vedder, a German judge, died in 1983. She returned to the Washington area in 1987 and graduated from George Washington University's paralegal program in 1993.
Survivors include three children, Marin, Marc-Andreas and Christiane Vedder, and a sister, Carol Fogarty, all of Washington. ROSA DAVIES D.C. Teacher
Rosa Harrison Lomax Davies, 72, who taught at Emery Elementary School in Washington from the mid-1960s until retiring in the mid-1980s, died of cancer May 16 at Howard University Hospital. She lived in Washington.
Mrs. Davies, a graduate of Bennett College in North Carolina, taught school in Greensboro, N.C., and her native Lynchburg, Va., before moving to the Washington area in the 1940s.
She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta social sorority.
Survivors include her husband of 51 years, John Paul Davies Jr., and two children, John III and Cheryl L. Jones, all of Washington, and a sister, Ruth Mayer of Lynchburg.
