- Clifton James
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For the impersonator of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, see M.E. Clifton James.
Clifton James Born May 29, 1921
New York City, New York United StatesYears active 1954–2006 Spouse Laurie Harper (1951 - present) 6 children George Clifton James (born May 29, 1921) is an American actor. He is probably best known for his role as the bumbling Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) and his role alongside Sean Connery in The Untouchables (1987).
Contents
Biography
Personal life
James was born in New York City, New York, the son of Grace (née Dean), a teacher, and Harry James, a journalist.[1] James is a decorated World War II veteran, U.S. Army Combat Infantry Platoon Sergeant Co. "A" 163rd Inf., 41st Div. He served forty-two months in the South Pacific, from January 1942 until August 1945. He spent time in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. His decorations include: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Combat Infantry Badge and six battle stars.[citation needed] He resides in New York City with his wife of 57 years. He has six children, fourteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Career
James became well-known for playing the comic-relief role of Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the James Bond films Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He also played a very similar character in both Superman II and Silver Streak, and a more serious sheriff in The Reivers.
James was the district attorney who prosecutes Al Capone in the 1987 film The Untouchables. He played a Navy Master at Arms in 1973's The Last Detail starring Jack Nicholson and baseball team owner Charles Comiskey in the 1988 true story Eight Men Out, a drama about the corrupt 1919 Chicago White Sox.
Despite being born in New York City, James has been cast as a Southerner in many of his roles, like his appearances in the James Bond films, and also powerful Houston lawyer Striker Bellman in the daytime soap opera Texas from 1981–82.
He was again a Southern character as the penitentiary's floor-walker in the Paul Newman film Cool Hand Luke, and again as Sheriff Lester Crabb, a temporary one-off replacement for regular Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best) in the second season Dukes of Hazzard episode "Treasure of Hazzard" (1979). In the 1969 film The Reivers, opposite Steve McQueen, James played a mean & corrupt bungling country sheriff, a basic warmup for his more lovable Sheriff J. W. Pepper in the James Bond film Live and Let Die.
James appeared on 13 episodes of the sitcom Lewis & Clark in 1981–82. Other television credits include two episodes of The A-Team as murderous prison Warden Beale in the first-season episode "Pros and Cons" (1983), and as corrupt Sheriff Jake Dawson in the second season's "The White Ballot" (1983). In 1996, he played the role of "Red Kilgreen" on the ABC daytime drama series, All My Children.
His other film roles include that of a wealthy Montana land baron whose cattle are being rustled in 1975's Rancho Deluxe and as the source who tips off newspaperman Bruce Willis to a potentially explosive story in The Bonfire of the Vanities. James has been featured a number of times by writer-director John Sayles, most recently in Lone Star (1996) and Sunshine State (2002).
James is not to be confused with actor Joe Higgins, whose tag line as a sheriff in early 1970s North American Dodge television commercials was "You're in a heap of [o'] trouble, boy."
References
- ^ "Clifton James Biography (1921-)". FilmReference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/66/Clifton-James.html. Retrieved 2007-12-15.
External links
Categories:- 1921 births
- American film actors
- American television actors
- Living people
- Actors from New York City
- American military personnel of World War II
- United States Army soldiers
- Recipients of the Silver Star
- Recipients of the Bronze Star Medal
- Recipients of the Combat Infantryman Badge
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