James B. Harris

James B. Harris (born August 3, 1928) is an American filmmaker best known for his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick.

Born in Manhattan, Harris studied music at the Juilliard School for a year before he dropped out. He later worked for his father's insurance firm. In 1949, Harris co-founded Flamingo Films with David L. Wolper and Sy Weintraub, which acquired the television licensing rights of shorts and documentaries. He was later drafted into the United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) where he met Alexander Singer. While they filmed a detective short film, Singer introduced Harris to Stanley Kubrick, then a fledging young filmmaker.

In 1955, Harris and Kubrick co-founded their namesake production company, whereby Harris produced The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and Lolita (1962). Harris made his directorial debut with the Cold War thriller The Bedford Incident (1965). He also directed the actor James Woods in two films: the prison-guard drama Fast-Walking (1982) and the thriller Cop (1988), based on a James Ellroy novel, which Woods co-produced. Harris also directed the 1993 thriller Boiling Point.

James B. Harris was born to a Jewish family on August 3, 1928 in Manhattan, New York. He was the second child to Joseph Harris, who worked as an insurance broker, and Sylvia, who had produced Broadway plays. His older sibling was J. Robert Harris. His family relocated to the Jersey Shore until they returned to New York City when he was a junior in high school. There, Harris studied at Columbia Grammar. After his graduation, he attended the Juilliard School as a percussion major, with the intent to become a professional musician.

Harris recalled, "Percussion was one thing, but it included playing actual musical instruments, like xylophone and timpanis, and you also had to have a minor in piano and courses like composition and music dictation... I realized quickly that I was in over my head." Meanwhile, Harris's father placed his son as an office boy for his insurance brokerage firm. He then began working for Essex Universal, a media company owned by his father which financed and distributed theatrical films. By 1949, Harris was working for Realart, which distributed foreign-language films in the United States.

That same year, in 1949, Harris co-founded Flamingo Films, a motion picture and television distribution company, with his former classmate David L. Wolper and Sy Weintraub, who had been in the U.S. Army with Harris's brother. The venture was financed by Harris's father. Harris traveled across the United States to acquire the television licensing rights with several production companies that had produced short-format documentaries, serials, animation, and educational and travelogue films. In 1951, Flamingo Films licensed the exclusive television rights to the 1948 Superman serial.

In 1950, Harris was drafted into the United States Army Signal Corps (USASC), located at the Astoria Studios on Long Island, which produced military training films. There, he met Alexander Singer, where they both trained as combat photographers. While at the Signal Corps, Harris and Singer borrowed film equipment from the Astoria Studios to film a 15-minute detective film they had scripted. They scheduled a weekend shoot at the Harris' Manhattan apartment, which served as both the production base and setting for the film. Harris was the director while Singer was the cameraman. Harris's cousin was cast in one of the lead roles and James Gaffney, one of their Signal Corps friends, was hired as the editor.

While filming, Singer told Harris of Stanley Kubrick, his former classmate from Taft High School. Singer had previously worked on Kubrick's short documentary Day of the Fight (1951). He invited Kubrick onto the set; Harris recalled: "I was a little nervous because it was like performing in front of someone who was already an established professional. He was telling me about the two short films he had made, Day of the Fight and Flying Padre. He had just completed his first feature film, Fear and Desire, which he had done all by himself." In 1954, Harris was discharged from the Signal Corps Photographic Unit and reintroduced himself to Kubrick in front of 1600 Broadway. Kubrick invited Harris to a screening of his second film, Killer's Kiss (1955).