With his face pruned, he could have competed with Lee Van Cleef. The speckled skin, the wry look at wish, the American actor Anthony James died, struck down by an ugly cancer, last Tuesday at his home in Massachusetts at the age of 77, according to the magazine Variety.
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Familiar face of cinema and American series, Anthony James, whose real name is Jimmy Anthony, had himself renamed Anthony James at the start of his career in order to avoid confusion with another actor bearing his birth name.
Born July 22, 1942 in Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina, this actor with a slender physique and an emaciated face decides to turn to the cinema at the age of 18, shortly after having moved in with his mother at Los Angeles. His mother is a domestic worker while he cleans the bathrooms "to make ends meet and pay for his acting lessons , " says Variety .
Tall, skinny, black hair, Anthony James obtained his first role in 1967, that of a bartender, in the excellent film by Norman Jewison In the heat of the night , with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, who won the Oscar for the best film the following year.
Anthony James made his screen debut in 1967 in the Norman Jewison film In the Heat of the Night , alongside Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. IMDB.
Over the course of a busy career, where Anthony James agrees to endorse the most twisted villains, there are many excellent films. We will remember him in Point zero point ( Vanishing Point ) in 1971, post- Easy Rider cult film by Richard C. Sarafian.
On his way, Anthony James will twice meet Clint Eastwood with whom he makes two films: The man of the high plains, in 1973.
He goes on with many bad guys roles. Among the strongest, we note his disturbing performance in the film Tonnerre de feu , by John Badham, on a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon (the screenwriter of Alien ).
More frightening than ever, Anthony James puts the wheels on the wheels of Roy Scheider who plays a helicopter pilot returned from Vietnam, who obtains orders for a prototype helicopter silent and over-armed to provide civil protection in the middle urban.
Anthony James embodies as usual a nasty henchman in the film Thunder of fire , by John Badham, released in 1983.
His last appearance on the screen dates back to 1992. He plays in the twilight western of Clint Eastwood, Unmerciful (Unforgiven) , alongside Gene Hackman, and plays Skinny Dubois, a sulphurous brothel boss. The film was awarded an Oscar in 1993.
Anthony James plays Skinny Dubois in Clit Eastwood's Impitoyable , in 1992. Warner Bros. / IMDB.
Anthony James was also known to be a fairly gifted poet and abstract painter. Clint Eastwood has repeatedly stated that he appreciates his painting skills. One of the comedian's paintings hung for a long time in Eastwood's office.
Anthony James has also appeared in numerous television series, Married, two children , Hawaii Five-0 , Drôles de dames and L'Agence tout Risques as well as Star Trek The Next Generation.