James Best (1926 - 2015)

James Best Actor James Best, who played the often confused Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” died on Monday evening after a brief illness and battle with pneumonia, according to his rep. He was 88. Best got his start as an actor during World War II when he joined the military theatrical […]

James Blish (1921 - 1975)

Author. He was born in East Orange, New Jersey. He is fondly remembered for his science fiction stories. In fact, he was the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death. Among his works “Cities […]

James Bogardus (1800 - 1874)

Architect. Initially a watch engraver, he was largely self-taught in architecture. He became a prominent designer and promoter of cast-iron architecture as fireproof, efficient, and transportable. He built structures in New York City, where several survive, as well as in Charleston, South Carolina and the District of Columbia.  Four of his five surviving buildings are […]

James Booth (1927 - 2005)

He was born in Croydon, Surrey, on 19 December 1927, the son of a probation officer. He was educated at Southend Grammar School, which he left aged 17 to join the army. He rose to the rank of Captain. He spent several years working for an international trading company. However, his interest in acting soon […]

James Brady (1940 - 2014)

James Brady Former White House Press Secretary, Gun Control Advocate. On March 30, 1981, Brady suffered a serious head wound when he was among four people shot during an assassination attempt on then President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley. Although he survived, the wound left him with slurred speech and partial paralysis that required the […]

James Broderick (1927 - 1982)

James Broderick was born in Charlestown, New Hampshire, the son of Mary Elizabeth (née Martindale) (b. 1896) and James Joseph Broderick II (or Jr.) (1895-1959). He was raised Catholic. His father, a highly decorated World War I combat medic, was of Irish descent, and his mother was of English and Irish ancestry. In 1947, after […]

James Brown (1933 - 2006)

James Brown Brown’s personal life was marred by several brushes with the law. At the age of 16, he was convicted of theft and served three years in juvenile prison. On July 16, 1978, after performing at the Apollo, Brown was arrested for reportedly failing to turn in records from one of his radio stations […]

James Buchanan (1791 - 1868)

James Buchanan Buchanan was born in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania (now Buchanan’s Birthplace State Park), in Franklin County, on April 23, 1791, to James Buchanan, Sr. (1761–1821), a businessman, merchant, and farmer, and Elizabeth Speer, an educated woman (1767–1833). His parents were both of Ulster Scots descent, the father having emigrated from Donegal, Ireland in 1783. Buchanan had six sisters and four […]

James Buchanan “Diamond Jim” Brady (1856 - 1917)

Railroad Business Magnate. Son of John Brady (1810-1863), and Mary A, Brady (1824-1908). He gained employment in the rapidly expanding New York Central Railroad system rising to chief assistant for the Central’s general manager by the age of twenty-one.  In 1879, due to his thorough knowledge of the industry, and his acquaintance with officials of […]

James Buchanan Duke (1856 - 1925)

James Buchanan Duke, known by the nickname “Buck”, was born on December 23, 1856, near Durham, North Carolina, to industrialist and philanthropist Washington Duke and his second wife, Artelia Roney Duke. Washington Duke (1820–1905), had owned a tobacco company that his sons James Buchanan Duke and Benjamin Newton Duke (1855–1929) took over in the 1880s. In […]

James Bunstone Bunning (1802 - 1863)

Architect of Holloway Prison and Billingsgate Market. Helped lay out Highgate Cemetery.

James Burke (1931 - 1996)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Jimmy the Gent”, he was immortalized in the Martin Scorcese gangster film “Goodfellas”. He was one of New York City’s most successful and revered organized criminals who went down in the annals of crime as the architect of the notorious 1978 Lufthansa heist, which looted New York’s JFK airport of […]

James C. Donnell (1854 - 1927)

James C Donnell was born on April 20, 1854, in County Armagh, Ireland, to James Donnell and Elizabeth Doyle. At the age of two, Donnell and his family moved to the United States and settled in Waterford, Pennsylvania. At the age of eighteen, he began his career in the oil industry by hauling crude oil […]

James Cagney (1899 - 1986)

James Cagney James Cagney, the cocky and pugnacious film star who set the standard for gangster roles in ”The Public Enemy” and won an Academy Award for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in ”Yankee Doodle Dandy,” died yesterday at his Dutchess County farm in upstate New York. He was 86 years old. Mr. Cagney […]

James Cain (1892 - 1977)

Upon returning to the United States, James Cain continued working as a journalist, writing editorials for the New York World and a play, a short story, and satirical pieces for American Mercury.[1] He briefly served as the managing editor of The New Yorker and later worked mainly on screenplays and novels. His first novel, The Postman […]

James Callahan (1930 - 0200)

James Thomas Callahan (October 4, 1930 – August 3, 2007) was an American film and television actor who appeared in more than 120 films and television programs between 1959 and 2007. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal from 1987 to 1990 of Walter Powell on the syndicated sitcom Charles in Charge, starring Scott […]

James Campbell (1970 - 1914)

Businessman. One of St. Louis’ wealthiest citizens when he died. During the Civil War, at the age of 14, he served as a messenger at Union General John C. Fremont’s headquarters. After the war, he worked as a surveyor for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, and began buying land ahead of the tracks. He later […]

James Cash Penney, Jr (1875 - 1971)

Businessman and entrepreneur; the founder of the JC Penney Company.  Born in Hamilton, Missouri, his father was an impoverished farmer and part-time Baptist preacher.  He was raised to be a devout Christian, a man whose foundation was the Golden Rule, to be self-reliant, self-disciplined, and with a strong concept of personal honor.  James attended the […]

James Chaney (1943 - 1964)

James Earl Chaney was born in Meridian, Mississippi, the elder son of Fannie Lee and Ben Chaney, Sr. His brother Ben was nine years younger, born in 1952, and he had three sisters, Barbara, Janice, and Julia. His parents separated for a time when James was young. James attended Catholic school for the first nine grades. […]

James Coburn (1928 - 2002)

Coburn was born on August 31, 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska, the son of James Coburn, Jr. and Milet Johanson; his father was of Scots-Irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from Sweden. The elder Coburn had a garage business that was destroyed by the Great Depression. Coburn himself was raised in Compton, California, where […]

James Coco (1930 - 1987)

Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Feliche Coco, a shoemaker, and Ida Detestes Coco, James Coco began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character roles. He made his Broadway debut in Hotel Paradiso in 1957, but his first major […]

James Conner (1829 - 1883)

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Born in Charleston, he was one of the best officers that South Carolina furnished the Confederacy. He was a graduate of South Carolina College, and became a distinguished lawyer and a United States district attorney before the outbreak of the Civil War. Serving as Captain of the Montgomery Guards, a […]

James Cooksey Earp (1841 - 1926)

Western Figure. Born in Harford, Kentucky, he was the oldest brother of Virgil, James and Wyatt Earp. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 17th Illinois Infantry, Union Army and was badly wounded in a battle at Fredericktown, Missouri, After the war, he traveled through different states before settling at Dodge […]

James Cossins (1933 - 1997)

James Cossins (4 December 1933 – 12 February 1997) was an English character actor. Born in Beckenham, Kent, he became widely recognised as the abrupt, bewildered Mr Walt in the Fawlty Towers episode “The Hotel Inspectors” and as Mr Watson the frustrated Public Relations training course instructor in an episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave […]

James Costigan (1926 - 2007)

Television Writer. A bit player in movies and TV as a youth, he became a television screenwriter in the 1950s for shows including “Studio One” and “Kraft Television Theatre.” In 1958, he wrote a widely-praised adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” starring Richard Burton for “The DuPont Show of the Month.” The first of the three Emmy […]

James Craig (1912 - 1985)

Actor. Born James Henry Meador in Nashville, Tennessee, after graduating from the Rice Institute, he began a career as a contract player at MGM in 1937. A veteran of over a hundred films, his credits included “North West Rangers” (1942), “The Human Comedy” (1943), “Side Street” (1949), “Code Two” (1953), “Four Fast Guns” (1960), “The […]

James Cruze (1884 - 1942)

James Cruze (March 27, 1884 near Ogden, Utah – August 3, 1942 in Hollywood, California) was a silent film actor and film director. Cruze was born Jens Vera Cruz Bosen. The Vera Cruz middle name came from the battle of Vera Cruz. He was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but did […]

James Daly (1918 - 1978)

James Daly was born in Wisconsin Rapids in Wood County in central Wisconsin, to a working-class family: his mother, Dorothy Ethelbert (Hogan) Mullen, later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and his father, Percifer Charles Daly, was a fuel merchant. During the 1930s, James Daly studied drama and acted in shows before he worked for […]

James de Rothschild (1878 - 1957)

British Politician and Philanthropist.  The son of Edmond James de Rothschild of the French branch of the wealthy and prominent Jewish Rothschild family, he received his education Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris, France and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England.  When World War I broke out in July 1914, he served in the enlisted ranks of the […]

James Dean (1931 - 1955)

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of […]