Anthony James (July 22, 1942 - May 26, 2020) was a retired American actor and painter who appeared as Adolph Van Pelt in the Season 6 episode of Married... with Children titled "Al Bundy, Shoe Dick".
Career[]
Tall and lanky, with a rough, pockmarked face, a lean, stringy build, greasy dark hair and an extremely edgy'n'intense screen presence, James was often cast in Westerns as really scary, sleazy and disgusting villains.
Anthony had previously made several guest appearances on the CBS-TV Western series Gunsmoke during the series' run, appearing in different roles, most often playing the character of Elbert Moses. Other shows he has guest-starred on include: The High Chaparral, Bonanza, The Rookies; the short-lived ABC-TV sitcom Holmes and Yo-Yo, which starred John Schuck, and Beauty and the Beast. starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton.
He has also appeared in a number of major feature films. One of his earliest was the 1967 classic In the Heat of the Night, which co-starred Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. Subsequent films include P.J. (1968), ...tick...tick...tick... (1970), High Plains Drifter (1973, with film star Clint Eastwood), Blue Thunder (1983), Nightmares (1983), and The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991, with Leslie Nielsen, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley). His last film role was in Clint Eastwood's 1992 Oscar-winning western, Unforgiven which also starred Eastwood.
Following his retirement from acting in 1992, he moved to Massachusetts and focused on painting as well as poetry. His first book, Language of the Heart, was published in 1994 and depicted his artistic work. In 2014, he published his autobiography, Acting My Face.[1]
Death[]
James died on May 26, 2020 from cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [2][3]
References[]
- ↑ Anthony James: so good at being bad. The Spectrum.
- ↑ Anthony James Obituary. Tribute Archive.
- ↑ Anthony James, Actor in ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘In the Heat of the Night,’ Dies at 77. The Hollywood Reporter.