CLIFTON JAMES

16 Apr

(29 May 1921 - 15 April 2017)

Although he had one hundred credits to his name, the US actor may well be remembered best for his appearances as Sheriff Pepper in two 007 pictures, Live and Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun in which he played a genial and bluff good old Southern boy. However, he began his acting career as a graduate of the Actors Studio and from 1954 was a regular on television. He also notched up a considerable collection of character parts in many notable films, beginning with Jack Garfein’s The Strange One in 1957 and Something Wild in 1961. He graced Blake Edwards’ Experiment in Terror (Grip of Fear in the UK) and was in David and Lisa, Invitation to a Gunfighter, The Chase, with Paul Newman in both Cool Hand Luke and WUSA, and in Will Penny, The Reivers, Kid Blue, The Iceman Cometh, The Last Detail and Juggernaut. With Gene Wilder in Silver Streak he played another sheriff, as he also did in Superman II. He was in Brian De Palma’s The Bonfire of the Vanities and John Sayles’s Lone Star and Sunshine State. Old Soldiers was in pre-production when he died.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

CLIFTON JAMES

ERIN MORAN

CHRISTOPHER MORAHAN