Anthony James: so good at being bad

I recently discovered this piece on the internet by Nick Thomas and thought it deserved a place here. I think it's always nice to feature Clint’s classic co-stars and always consider them a vital part of the Eastwood circle of friends.

After preparing a draft of his autobiography in 2009 and approaching several book agents, former actor Anthony James was repeatedly advised: “It’s a wonderful memoir, but take your mother out of it and we’ll represent you."

But James would have none of it. In addition to telling the story of his rise to one of Hollywood’s most memorable "bad guys" in the 70s and 80s, he was determined to also honour the woman who supported his career.

“After all those years of agents and publishers wanting to ‘throw Momma from the train,’ the book was published by the University of Mississippi Press,” said James from his home near Boston, where he has lived since retiring from acting 20 years ago.

Published in 2014 as “Acting My Face,” the title seemed appropriate to the lanky, swarthy James, who is widely recognized for playing psychopathic killers and other disturbed characters.

“I have to remind people that I did play love scenes, it’s just that they were at knife-point!” he laughed.

 

After selling all their possessions and moving from South Carolina to Hollywood in 1960, James says his widowed Greek mother, Marika Palla Anthony (1913–2008), immediately began working to support him.

“She took a job as a factory steam presser while I tried to start my career,” recalled James. “I really didn’t have a clue how to begin, and even looked for starring roles in the want-ads of the LA Times. Those first years in Hollywood were difficult and scary.”

With persistence, luck, and the encouragement of a devoted mother, James landed two one-line roles in the short lived TV series "T.H.E. Cat" and "Captain Nice" six years after arriving in Hollywood.

"They got me my SAG card but, most importantly, I did my first film 50 years ago in 1966, "In the Heat of the Night," said James. Released the following year, it was a small but pivotal role in what would be the year's Best Picture Oscar winner.

“When I left the dressing room and walked out for the first scene in the diner, I felt I was being led to a guillotine!” admitted James about his first film role. “I tried to keep my voice from breaking I was so terrified. But I told myself to just be the character – imagine there was no camera, no crew, no marks to hit, to just always go back to being the character. Norman Jewison was a supportive director and the scene was done in one take.” 

Set in the sweltering Mississippi summer, many external scenes were filmed in Illinois during the chilly fall. It was so cold, the actors’ breath could be seen during filming.

“We had to put ice in our mouths just before saying our lines to cool our breath,” said James.

As the sleazy diner counterman, Ralph Henshaw, James was immediately typecast as a villain. “My mother wasn’t too thrilled – she always thought of me as the heroic romantic lead, but eventually accepted it.”

In “Burnt Offerings” (1976), James was memorable as a creepy chauffeur in a dream sequence, although he never uttered a word on-screen. Off-set, he was more vocal, and recalls his first encounter with co-star Bette Davis.

“For one scene, she was made up to appear over a hundred years old, which was done in her hotel room for her convenience,” said James. “I was staying in the same hotel and met her for the first time in the lobby as she came down in character as an old woman. I said ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you Ms. Davis, we should probably get over to the set because it will take a long time to get your makeup on!’”

Davis’s entourage froze with shock, says James. “But she got the joke. Two years later we did another film, ‘Return from Witch Mountain,’ and during the nine weeks of filming had all our scenes together. Director John Hough and I were the only people she would allow in her dressing room.”

James worked in two classic Clint Eastwood westerns, but didn’t fare well at the hands of the famous cowboy. In “High Plains Drifter” (1973) Clint shot off his ear, before getting final retribution with a whip, and in “Unforgiven” James was blasted with a shotgun just before the credits rolled.

Well-known for these western roles, James offered an explanation why the genre fell out of favor with studios and audiences.

“My uneducated guess regarding the virtual extinction of the western is that it does not carry the inherent scope for the massive sophistication of special effects and the 3D lens,” he suggested. “How many arrows, stampeding herds, and tumbleweeds can you hurl at a current movie audience without finding them passed out from clinical boredom?  No, only science fiction, fantasy, horror, animation, and the video game's non-stop technological drug is the cinematic fix for today's movie goer's addiction.”

As for the last great big-screen western, James suggests John Ford's “My Darling Clementine” is a strong contender.

“The great emptiness of his landscapes and the vast cloud-mottled skies dwarf the characters' problems rendering them minor, vain and pathetic,” he said. “That a western with a gritty realism and brutality can capture the existential angst of life with such a grievous beauty is for me a touch of genius.”

An abstract painter of many years, James says Eastwood admired his artwork.

“He liked one piece in particular, so I left it in his office as a gift,” recalled James, who published a book of art and poetry, "Language of the Heart," in 1994. “Later, I got a note from Clint saying he built a room for it in his new home!”

“Unforgiven” won Best Picture Oscar in 1992, and would turn out to be James’ final acting job after nearly 100 film and TV roles. He moved to the East Coast where, today, he continues to paint. His works are sold through Renjeau Gallery in Natick, Massachusetts.

Bookending his acting career with a pair of Best Picture films is an accomplishment James views modestly.

“I never considered myself a celebrity, just a sometime recognisable face,” he says in reference to the title of his autobiography. “I hope people will laugh out loud at some of the book’s Hollywood tales and are moved by my mother’s story.”

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 600 magazines and newspapers.

To order Acting My Face click here