At age 18, Elcar enlisted and served a tour of duty in the United States Navy at the end of World War II.

He brought this education to bear when in 1986, with fellow character actor William Lucking, he formed the Santa Paula Theater Center.

[citation needed] In 1962, he created the role of the hitman Ben in the U.S. premiere of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village, New York City.

That same year he was cast on the long running CBS daytime drama The Guiding Light as Andrew Murray, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County.

As a character actor, Elcar guest-starred in many television shows, including Gunsmoke; Mannix; Ironside; Columbo; Cannon; Benson; Newhart; The Fall Guy; Scarecrow and Mrs. King; Hill Street Blues; The A-Team; Trapper John, M.D.

In 1980, he was cast in the role of "Chief" (previously played in the TV series by Edward Platt, who died in 1974) in the Get Smart feature film entitled The Nude Bomb (a.k.a.

After MacGyver, Elcar made a guest appearance in "Virus", a 1993 episode of Law & Order, in which he played a man who blamed his diabetes-caused blindness on his former physician, and whose son murdered other patients as revenge.

Once blind, Elcar accepted the challenge of playing Vladimir in Waiting for Godot on stage, complete with white cane.