Celebrity Biographies
Clifton James
He made a hundred movies, but viewers will remember him dressed as a sheriff, a role he played in “The Chicago Express,” “Superman II,” “The A-Team,” and in two 007 70s movies, “Live and Let Die.” ” and “The Man with the Golden Gun”. “I feel terribly sad to hear that Clifton James has left us. As Sheriff JW Pepper he brought such a great and funny character to my first James Bond films ”, commented Sir Roger Moore, star of both titles, after his death at the age of 96 on April 15, 2017.
Born May 29, 1921, in Spokane, Washington, Clifton James served in the Army for five years fighting in World War II. He began his acting career in the 1950s, in supporting roles on film and television. Among his milestones are his brief appearances with Marlon Brando in The Human Pack , Charlton Heston , in The Bravest of a Thousand , and Paul Newman in Cool Hand .
In 1973 he participated in Live and Let Die , where he played JW Pepper, the Louisiana sheriff who was chasing James Bond in the unforgettable boat-chasing sequence, where he carried much of the humorous weight. He was so well received that he reprized in The Man with the Golden Gun the following year, this time to assist the licensed-to-kill agent. He was typecast as a sheriff with a thick southern accent, a role he also played on The Chicago Express and the series Maroon, The Fall Guy, The Nutty Sheriff and The A-Team . He also played the same role in Superman II., where he starred in a funny moment, when he and his assistant try to stop the three supervillains, discovering that firearms do not pose a threat against them. Interestingly, in the John Sayles southern sheriff film Lone Star , he was not one of them but the mayor.
Divorced from Donna Lee Beach, he is survived by his second wife, Laurie Harper. Clifton James had one child with the first and five with his now widow.