Anthony James was born on July 22, 1942, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He stood out with his unusual height of 6' 6½, lanky build, and a rough, pockmarked face. His intense screen presence often led to him being cast as scary, sleazy villains in Westerns.
One of his most memorable roles was as the racist diner counterman in the outstanding film In the Heat of the Night (1967). He also appeared as a gay hitchhiker in the cult classic Vanishing Point (1971),a priest in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972),an outlaw in High Plains Drifter (1973),a deranged psycho in The Teacher (1974),the chauffeur from hell in the chiller Burnt Offerings (1976),and the vicious leader of a gang of ferocious barbarians in the science fiction film Ravagers (1979).
James took on a rare change-of-pace good guy role as a heroic cannibal in the post-nuke sci-fi romp World Gone Wild (1987) and parodied his evil persona in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991). He appeared in numerous television shows, including Married... with Children, Beauty and the Beast, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Simon & Simon, The A-Team, Riptide, The Fall Guy, Hunter, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Quincy, M.E., Charlie's Angels, Vega$, Starsky and Hutch, S.W.A.T., Ironside, Hawaii Five-O, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and The Big Valley.
James's last film appearance was as the owner of a seedy bordello in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992). After quitting acting in the early 1990s, he pursued a successful career as an artist. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in major cities such as New York, Boston, and Miami.
