Search the Western Clippings Site

An Interview With…
        - Archives

Will "Sugarfoot" Hutchins
    - Archives

Do You Remember?
    - Archives

Comic Book Cowboys
    - Archives

Westerns of...
    - Archives

Heavies and Characters
      - Warren Oates
      - Ford Rainey
      - Ward Bond
      - William Mims
      - James Gregory
      - Guy Wilkerson
      - Frank Ferguson
      - Al Ferguson
      - Mort Mills
      - Slim Whitaker
      - Le Roy Mason
      - Kenneth MacDonald
      - Nestor Pavia
      - Steve Clark
      - Pierce Lyden
      - Bud Geary
      - Lyle Talbot
      - Rayford Barnes
      - I. Stanford Jolley
      - Don Harvey
      - Bruce Dern
      - Ian MacDonald
      - Bob Kortman
      - Bob Wilke
      - Denver Pyle
      - Jack Ingram
      - Jan Merlin
      - Neville Brand
      - John Anderson
      - John Milford
      - Lee Marvin
      - Trevor Bardette
      - Morgan Woodward
      - Michael Pate
      - Fred Kohler
      - Mari Blanchard
      - Dick Alexander
      - Hank Worden
      - Marie Windsor
      - Edmund Cobb
      - Gregg Barton
      - Douglas Fowley
      - Walter Burke
      - Budd Buster
      - R. G. Armstrong
      - Gregg Palmer
      - Rex Holman
      - Ernie Adams
      - Robert Ryan
      - Ted de Corsia
      - Scott Marlowe
      - Lee Roberts
      - James Coburn
      - Victor Jory
      - Kenne Duncan
      - Stephen McNally
      - Wallace Ford
      - Earle Hodgins
      - Douglas Kennedy
      - DeForest Kelley
      - George Macready
      - Terry Frost
      - John Doucette
      - Riley Hill
      - James Seay
      - Richard Devon
      - Harry Lauter
      - James Griffith
      - Myron Healey
      - J. Farrell MacDonald
      - Jean Willes
      - Hank Patterson
      - L. Q. Jones
      - Tom London
      - Leo Gordon
      - Holly Bane/Mike Ragan
      - Dan Duryea
      - John Cason
      - Dennis Moore
      - Lee Van Cleef
      - Jack Elam
      - Roy Barcroft
      - William Fawcett
      - Byron Foulger
      - Gerald Mohr
      - Tom Bay
      - Lafe McKee
      - Paul Sorenson, Ben Welden, William Watson, George Barrows
      - Strother Martin
      - Carl Stockdale
      - Edward J. Peil
      - George Wallace
      - Claude Akins
      - Al Taylor
      - Henry Silva
      - John Dehner
      - Donald Curtis
      - Steve Brodie
      - John Merton
      - Lyle Bettger
      - Ted Adams
      - John Cliff
      - Marshall Reed
      - Barton MacLane
      - Al Bridge
      - Warner Richmond
      - Charles Stevens
      - Ethan Laidlaw
      - Chris Alcaide
      - Tris Coffin
      - Noah Beery Sr.
      - Frank Ellis
      - Zon Murray
      - Lane Bradford
      - Morris Ankrum
      - Harry Woods
      - Charlie King
      - Glenn Strange
      - Forrest Taylor
      - Bud Osborne
      - Dick Curtis
      - George Chesebro

The Stuntmen - Neil Summers
    - Archives

Western Treasures
    - Archives

Circus Cowboys
    - Archives

Radio Range Riders
    - Archives

Rangeland Elegance
    - Archives

Western Artifacts
    - Archives

Film Festival Fotos
    - Archives

Silent Western Reviews
    - Archives

Serial Report
    - Archives

Subscribe to Western Clippings

COLLECTIBLES FOR SALE:

Western Clippings Back Issues

Daily Comic Strips
    - Page 1 (1910-1949)
    - Page 2 (1950-1979)

Sunday Comic Strips
    - 1907-1990

Books

Miscellaneous Collectibles

Autographs

Lobby Cards

Movie Posters

Home

JAMES GRIFFITH

Hungry looking, spindly-lean James Griffith portrayed many roles on screen that were a far cry from his real warm human being persona.

James Jeffrey Griffith was born February 13, 1916, in Los Angeles, California, the son of a boat builder who worked at Fellows and Stewart in Wellington. His mother’s father was pure Scotch, his mother’s mother pure Irish, his father’s father was pure Welsh and his father’s mother was the daughter of a British admiral. Jim’s early childhood was spent in San Pedro, California, where he appeared in his first play at a Methodist Church before he was even in kindergarten. When the family moved to Balboa, Jim worked at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club as a bellhop. With the crash of ‘29, hard times hit the Griffith family so they sailed away in 1930 to Tahiti where they lived for a time. Returning to Balboa in 1931, his parents were divorced and Jim and his sister moved with his mother to Santa Monica to live with his grandmother.

In his junior and senior years of high school Jim played clarinet in the orchestra. He also played in the Santa Monica Symphony in the winter season. After high school, Jim joined the Marine Corps intending to go in as a musician, instead spending a year and a half in a howitzer outfit. He was later transferred to Pearl Harbor as a member of a 28 piece band. During this period he performed in many community theatres. Following his hitch in the Marines he was hired by the San Diego Sun as a reporter while he performed in plays with the Barn Players. This brief career was interrupted near the close of WWII when Jim was recalled into the Marines until his discharge in 1947.

Nancy Gates is in the middle of trouble between George Montgomery (as Bat Masterson) and James Griffith (as Doc Holliday) in Columbia's "Masterson of Kansas" ('54).

Jim found work pumping gas at a Standard Oil station in Westwood. A chance encounter with customer Spike Jones found Jim performing with Jones’ wacky musicians. Still working with Jones and holding down a shift at the gas station, Jim made his first film, “Blonde Ice”, in 1948. From this time on film roles and TV work kept Jim busy. His first western was “Daughter of the West” (‘49), the script of which Jim and his friend Jack Daley re-wrote to make it serviceable.

In 1950, Jim became a regular performer on most of Gene Autry’s Flying-A Productions—“Range Rider”, “Gene Autry”, “Annie Oakley”, “Buffalo Bill Jr.”.

James Griffith was Deputy Tom Ferguson on TV's "U.S. Marshal" with John Bromfield as Marshal Frank Morgan.In 1958, Jim played the role of Aaron Adams, a barber, and second lead on “Trackdown” with Robert Culp. At the same time, ‘58-‘59, Jim was playing deputy Tom Ferguson on John Bromfield’s “U.S. Marshal”. John, frequent director Earl Bellamy and Jim all formed a lasting relationship from that series. Bromfield told us, “Jim loved good humor while we were setting the scene up. He always could find some humor about it and he’d keep everybody in stitches most of the time. Great personality. It’s amazing in the years that we’d go places and do things together, people would recognize him—didn’t know his name because very few people know character actor’s names—but they knew his face. We had a lot of fun together. He was blessed in that he had two wonderful wives. He had a good life, a fun life.”

Bob Wilke holds a gun on Andrew Duggan and James Griffith in "Return to Warbow" ('58 Columbia).Besides his busy acting schedule over the years, Jim collaborated with Hal Hopper (who once sang with the Pied Pipers) on scripts and title tunes for a couple of movies. Jim worked on the scripts of “Shalako” (‘68) and “Catlow” (‘71) under the name J. J. Griffith. Over time he also penned the story for “Motor Psycho” (‘65) and scripted certain episodes of “The Fugitive” and “Mission Impossible”.

 

Four bad men (l-r): Bill Phipps, William Tannen, John Cliff, James Griffith in "Jesse James vs. The Daltons" ('53 Columbia).

James Arness and James Griffith on TV's "Gunsmoke: Kite's Reward".Papillary cancer and a subsequent operation in 1978 left Jim without the strong voice he’d once possessed, so he concentrated on writing. One of filmdom’s best character actors succumbed to cancer at 77 September 17, 1993, at his home in Avila Beach, California. In his farewell letter to his friends in August, Jim wrote, “I have lived a wonderfully full life. You name it, I’ve done it. I’ve made a living doing what I wanted to do. Best of all, look at all of you who are my friends.”