|
John
James was born on
April 18, 1956
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the son of radio broadcaster Herb Oscar Anderson.
John
got a taste of show business as a toddler. His father moved his wife
and three children to New Cannan from Chicago in 1961, and young
John, at age 4, listened every morning to his dad spinning out the
hits on WABC-AM, New York’s top-rated megawatt pop tooth grinder.
Even as a kid he wanted to be part of the action and he wrote
scripts for his brother and sister and pretend living-room shows for
his parents and their friends.
John
was accepted at the
American
Academy
of Dramatic Arts in
New York City
. He got the proverbial crummy cold-water flat, bought a 10-speed
bike for pedaling around town and took odd jobs-parking cars at
night, yard work in the suburbs on the weekend- all the while
carrying a full academic load. Invited to attend the Academy for a
second year, he dropped out six weeks before graduation as he wanted
to bust his career.
The
first role John landed was on CBS's daytime soap, "Search for
Tomorrow", and James played a college student. He wanted the
part bad and though, by his own admission, he wasn't right for the
role, he got it. The first six months on the show was a rough time.
He was improvising too much and he didn't know what he was doing.
But John got the hang on things and stayed with the show for two and
a half years before being written out.
John
went to
California
to meet up with producers and casting directors who were thrilled
with the young actor. Within a week, James had signed a lucrative 'holding
deal' with ABC. The network hotshots hadn't decided what they wanted
to do with him, but they didn't want him doing it for the
competition. He tested for every project ABC could concoct for the
next couple of months, when along came a pilot called "Oil",
so metamorphose into "Dynasty". James tested for the part
of Steven Carrington but got the part of Jeff Colby. The part of
Jeff didn't exist in the original script, it was created especially
for him.
The
role of Jeff Colby made him famous around the world. He later played
the same character on Dynasty's spin off, "The Colbys".
After that show got cancelled, John went home to "Dynasty".
Although popular with fans during the series' run, he has since made
only occasional acting appearances on television, with the exception
of his role on a daytime soap "ATWT" on which he stayed
from 2003 to 2004, since Dynasty ended.
He
has been married since 1989 to former Miss Australia
(1978) Denise Coward and they have two children, Laura and Philip.
|
|
| The
complete data from John
James filmography is included in
the biggest film data-base on the internet, site Internet
Movie Database, and we have inter-linked the IMDb site with
the individual pages of each Dynasty actor. |
|
