Clifton James

George Clifton James was born on May 29, 1920, in Spokane, Washington, the son of Grace James, a teacher, and Harry James, a journalist. He grew up in the Gladstone area of Clackamas County, Oregon. Before pursuing a career in the arts, James served as an infantry platoon sergeant with Company A, 163rd Infantry, 41st Division, during World War II, completing forty-two months of service in the South Pacific between January 1942 and August 1945. His military decorations included the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts. Following the war, he enrolled at the University of Oregon on the G.I. Bill, where he first developed an interest in acting. He subsequently relocated to New York City to continue his training at the Actors Studio, of which he became a long-standing member.

James began his professional career in New York theater and made his Broadway debut in 1955. His stage credits included Great Day in the Morning, Andorra, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, and Total Abandon, with his Broadway appearances spanning from 1955 to 1983.

On screen, James built a substantial career playing authority figures, often with a Southern or rural character. He appeared as prison floorwalker Carr in Cool Hand Luke in 1967, and two years later portrayed a corrupt country sheriff opposite Steve McQueen in The Reivers. He became widely recognized for his comic portrayal of Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the James Bond films Live and Let Die in 1973 and The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974, both starring Roger Moore. He played comparable characters in Silver Streak in 1976 and Superman II in 1980. Additional film roles included a wealthy Montana land baron in Rancho Deluxe in 1975, a Texas tycoon in The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training in 1977, an uncredited district attorney in The Untouchables in 1987, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey in Eight Men Out in 1988, and a source figure in The Bonfire of the Vanities in 1990. Director John Sayles cast James in multiple productions, including Eight Men Out, Lone Star in 1996, and Sunshine State in 2002. His final known film appearance was in Raising Flagg in 2006, though he had been cast in a starring role in Old Soldiers, a production that was halted in 2016.

James also maintained an active television career. He appeared in multiple episodes of Gunsmoke across different seasons, playing distinct characters including a blackmailing salesman in 1965 and a poker player in a later episode. He portrayed Sheriff Lester Crabb in a second-season episode of The Dukes of Hazzard in 1980, appeared in thirteen episodes of the sitcom Lewis and Clark from 1981 to 1982, and played powerful Houston lawyer Striker Bellman on the daytime soap opera Texas from 1981 to 1982. He appeared in two episodes of The A-Team in 1983, playing a prison warden in one and a corrupt sheriff in the other. Additional television credits included City of Angels in 1976, the miniseries Captains and the Kings in 1976, the 1979 pilot episode of Hart to Hart, and the role of Red Kilgreen on All My Children in 1996.

In his personal life, James was married twice, first to Donna Lea Beach from 1948 to 1950, with whom he had one child, and then to Laurie Harper from 1951 until her death in 2015, with whom he had five children. He resided in Gladstone, Oregon. James died on April 15, 2017, from complications of diabetes, at the age of 96.