Clifton James

George Clifton James (May 29, 1920 – April 15, 2017) was an American actor of film, theatre, and television. He was best known to screen audiences for his various character roles, including prison floorwalker Carr in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), the sheriff in Silver Streak (1976), a Texas tycoon in The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977), and Charles Comiskey in Eight Men Out (1988).

James was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of Grace (née Dean), a teacher, and Harry James, a journalist. He grew up in Oregon in the Gladstone area of Clackamas County.

James was a decorated World War II United States Army veteran. He served as an infantry platoon sergeant with Co. "A" 163rd Infantry, 41st Division. He served forty-two months in the South Pacific from January 1942 until August 1945. His decorations include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts.

After the war, James attended the University of Oregon on the G.I. Bill, where he developed his interesting in acting. He later moved to New York City, where he continued his studies at the Actors Studio.

James began his career in theater in New York City, and was a graduated of the Actors Studio. He became well known for playing the comic-relief role of Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the James Bond films Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). He played very similar characters in both Silver Streak (1976) and Superman II (1980). Years earlier he portrayed a serious character in The Reivers (1969), opposite Steve McQueen, playing a mean, corrupt country sheriff. Two years before that, he had portrayed a hard-nosed Southern prison floor-walker in Cool Hand Luke (1967). In Juggernaut (1974) he portrayed one of the first passengers aboard a luxury liner to realize there was a serious problem with the ship.

James appeared in the uncredited role of the district attorney who prosecuted Al Capone in the film The Untouchables (1987). He played a Navy master-at-arms in The Last Detail (1973), starring Jack Nicholson, and Chicago White Sox baseball team owner Charles Comiskey in Eight Men Out (1988), a drama about the corrupt 1919 Chicago White Sox.

Despite being born in the Northwest and spending much of his life in New York (where he was an Actors Studio member of long standing), James was cast as a Southerner in many of his screen roles, such as his appearances in the James Bond films, and as powerful Houston lawyer Striker Bellman in the daytime soap opera Texas from 1981 to 1982.

In 1965, he played “Sam Hare”, a slimy, blackmailing salesman on the TV Western Gunsmoke in the episode “The Lady” (S10E27). He guest-starred again as Tenner Jackson, a successful poker player later killed for his winnings in the episode “The Wrong Man” - alongside Carroll O’Connor (S12E7). Later, he played the train passenger Wilkes on the Gunsmoke episode "Snow Train" (1970).