Please Rewind Talent Wall

Anthony James

Anthony James built a screen career around characters who could make a scene feel dangerous before they had said very much. Born James Anthony in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on July 22, 1942, he reversed his name for professional use because another SAG member was already working as James Anthony. The son of Greek immigrants, he cited Marlon Brando as a role model and developed a distinctive presence of his own, particularly in threatening and offbeat supporting roles. His first major film appearance came as Ralph, the diner counterman in 1967’s In the Heat of the Night. James went on to appear in P.J. and...tick...tick...tick..., then played one of the lynch mobsters in Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter. In The Teacher, he took his first costarring role as a murderous stalker. Horror fans may know him best as the menacing, grinning chauffeur in Burnt Offerings, a performance that earned him a minor cult following. James also moved easily between film and television. He made several appearances on Gunsmoke in different roles, most often as Elbert Moses, and guest-starred on series including Hawaii Five-O, Bonanza, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky and Hutch, S.W.A.T., The A-Team, Hunter, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beauty and the Beast and Married... with Children. His later film work included Blue Thunder, Nightmares and the broad comedy The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear. He retired from acting in the early 1990s. His final film role was Skinny Dubois, the saloonkeeper in 1992’s Unforgiven. That gave his movie career a striking pair of bookends: both In the Heat of the Night and Unforgiven won the Academy Award for Best Picture. After settling in Arlington, Massachusetts, James concentrated on painting. He published the art-and-poetry book Language of the Heart in 1994 and the autobiography Acting My Face in 2014. He died in 2020.