James Frawley

James Joseph Frawley (September 29, 1936 – January 22, 2019) was an American actor and director born in Houston, Texas. He became a member of the Actors Studio around 1961 and built a career that spanned more than four decades, moving from stage and screen performance into a long tenure as a television and film director.

Frawley's Broadway career ran from 1961 to 1964 and included three productions: Becket, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Anyone Can Whistle. During roughly the same period, he took on supporting acting roles in film and television, work that continued through 1966. Among those appearances was the role of Hawaii District Attorney Alvarez in the 1965 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Feather Cloak."

In 1966, Frawley transitioned to directing when he was hired to work on the new television series The Monkees, ultimately directing half of the show's 58 episodes. His work on the series earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in 1967 for the episode "Royal Flush." He received a nomination in the same category the following year for the Monkees episode "The Devil and Peter Tork."

His directing career extended across numerous television series, including Cagney & Lacey, Magnum, P.I., Smallville, Ghost Whisperer, and Judging Amy. In 1979, he directed The Muppet Movie, in which he also appeared in a cameo role. His final acting credit was the part of a bartender in the television series American Gothic in 1996.

Frawley died of a heart attack at his home in Indian Wells, California, on January 22, 2019, at the age of 82.