Anthony James

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anthony James (born July 22, 1942 in Myrtle Beach , South Carolina as James Anthony , † May 26, 2020 in Massachusetts ) was an American actor and artist . James, who was often cast in villain roles due to his appearance , withdrew from acting in the early 1990s and has since appeared primarily as a painter.

life and career

Anthony James was born in 1942 as the only child of George Anthony (1893–1951) and Marika Palla Anthony (1913–2008), who emigrated from Greece in 1940 during the Second World War, in Myrtle Beach on the Atlantic coast . His father, who ran a restaurant, died in 1951.

James moved to Hollywood with his mother in 1960 to begin an acting career. Since the Screen Actors Guild had already listed an actor named James Anthony, he could not work under his maiden name. So he exchanged the first name for the family name.

Only after a few years did he manage to get smaller roles in television series. He initially had several guest appearances in the CBS western series Smoking Colts during the great western hype on television. He got his first important role in 1967 in In the Heat of the Night , opposite Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger . Although he only had a brief appearance in the Oscar- winning film as the convicted murdered restaurant worker Ralph , this opened the way for him to larger projects. He remained, however, especially on the presentation vicious psychopath or other rogue roles later determined . An essential feature for this was his outward appearance: slim, tall and with numerous scars on his cheeks , which came from a chickenpox disease in his youth.

Further film appearances followed in the western Der Gnadenlose (1968) alongside George Peppard and in the western comedy Sam Whiskey (1969). James is also known for his role as one of the lynching gangsters in A Stranger Without a Name (1973) directed by Clint Eastwood . He was also in the films Country House of Dead Souls (1976), The Flying Eye (1983) and Nightmares (1983). In the slapstick comedy Die nackte Kanone 2½ (1991) he was able to parody his villain image with an over-the-top appearance as the killer Hector Savage and thereby also prove his comedic talent. James also took on various guest roles in the series Bonanza , High Chaparral , Columbo and in the ABC sitcom Holmes & Yoyo (1976) and the CBS sitcom Beauty and the Beast (1987) with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton . In total he worked on more than 70 film and television productions.

As early as the early 1990s, Anthony James retired from the film business after his last film role as brothel owner Skinny Dubois in Clint Eastwood's western Mercilessly , although he was only 50 years old at the time. Curiously, both his last (Merciless) and his first feature film (In the Heat of the Night) received the Oscar for Best Film . He lived on the American east coast near Boston , Massachusetts since 1994 and was mainly active as an artist. Many of his works have been exhibited in the United States. In 2014 he published his autobiography Acting My Face: A Memoir .

He died in May 2020 at the age of 77 years in the state of Massachusetts on a cancer .

Filmography (selection)

Fonts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Anthony James in Legacy
  2. ↑ a b Mike Barnes: Anthony James, Actor in 'Unforgiven' and 'In the Heat of the Night,' Dies at 77 . In: hollywoodreporter.com on May 28, 2020.
  3. ↑ Nick Thomas: Anthony James: so good at being bad . In thespectrum.com on July 28, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Steve Frangos: Anthony James: a Most Original Artist . In: thenationalherald.com from May 20, 2018.
  5. ↑ Anthony James . In renjeau.com, accessed May 28, 2020.
  6. ^ Obituary for Anthony James in Variety
personal data
SURNAME James, Anthony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anthony, James (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and artist
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Myrtle Beach , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 2020
Place of death Massachusetts