Blade Runner helped make my career. Everybody was in it. Who knew?
During the psychedelic revolution of the '60s, you know, drop in, drop out, or be in... one of those things. I did all those things.
First I partied with it, then I became successful and I was still doing drugs and I got into hard drugs. I think part of it is that I went from fear of failure to fear of success, because it came quick. You know the old thing about the small town boy goes to the big city and gets his butt kicked.
Flesh and Blood was one of those films where most of the actors wanted to quit because of the six to eight week schedule with long hours.
I also do a lot of comedy and play good guys.
I could talk about Blade Runner forever.
I couldn't say no to jobs and I couldn't say no to drugs. I'd get high from a movie, I'd be somebody else because I didn't particularly like me, so long as I had a script in my hand, I was okay. As soon as the movie was over, I didn't know what to do.
I did 125 films, and over 100 television shows, and you've never seen the same character twice.
I dropped out of the business. I got scared because I had been successful and I thought if I was sober I wouldn't be interesting, all those fears, which were unfounded.
I held my own with all of these guys, I make them look better.
I just came to New York with $100 bucks.
I liked the drama of getting stoned.
I never play a villain that I don't have something I can either do or say so the audience sees there is something redeemable about them. In other words, I don't want to do evil for evil's sake. I don't want to do Jason slasher movies. There's no point in that.
I play out negative fantasies for people. I'm the guy people love to hate. And they always remember the bad guy.
I prayed to God for help and I put myself in a recovery house called Studio 12. It was for people in the business and you didn't have to have any money to go, which was good because I was broke.
I still do television. I don't care. I just want to work. I love to work. I want to do 500 movies.
I very seldom give myself up entirely to a director.
I want to act my whole life. I've been married for six years. I've got a wonderful wife who's an actress.
I want to direct. I'd like to try that on. Not that I want to become a director, I always want to be an actor.
I was a different kind of kid, oversensitive and all that.
I went home once at 31 and tried to kick heroin. I cleaned up, made a comeback, still drinking, and I started doing it again and I got more successful.
I went to college, San Diego State, and took drama and then I took off and traveled for while... made some money, went to Europe... that was all part of my education.
I went to the press screening and it was like getting kicked in the stomach, seeing what's not there. I'm the third lead and I looked like a dressed extra. All the stuff that they had in the setup, stuff in the trailer, all those scenes were gone.
I went to the Ukraine when I was shooting another film, and I was mobbed. I was in the Black Sea and I had no idea that people even knew who I was.
I worked with all of the big guys because I play a good villain. And the better villain I am, the better they look.
I'm a character actor, so I don't take the hit if the movie's bad, the lead does. So, I don't want to be the lead. He takes the hit, I don't.
I'm a hired gun for these studios.
I'm a parrot. I can pick up an accent and just do it.
I'm big and a lot of the stars are smaller so if you're big and mean looking, you play bad guys. After Blade Runner, I was the meanest guy in Hollywood.
I'm really fortunate and grateful that I'm not dead, because a lot of my pals that I went through this with have either lost their careers or are dead, or both. There are a lot of casualties.
I'm really glad westerns are back.
I've never considered myself a leading man, don't look like one, don't want to be one.
Imagine picking up a sword at three o'clock in the morning and you had to do that three times.
In Tango And Cash, We had a Russian Director and I asked him if I could do a Cockney accent for the character because I do accents.
In the '70s, everybody was doing drugs, so long as you showed up and did your work, they'd use you until you died.
It was just fun, having fun playing a maniac.
Larry Kasdan is a great director.
My dad had a movie theater so I was there every night.
My whole deal when I do accents or dialects is I gotta fool the locals. If I fool the locals then I've done my job.
On the smaller films, they want more stories. I get to do wackier characters.
One afternoon I was sitting at this table for six hours without being able to get up because the lights were set a certain way.
Politically you learn how to lobby once you get on a big show.
Producing is nothing more than bringing all the elements together, connecting people.
Since very early in my career, I have always did my own stunt fighting.
Stella taught the pure Method, where Brando learned it initially and everybody else, she taught everybody from him down. I got the craft, came back to L.A. and did a play.
Taking outtakes from The Shining for the ending was a horrible thing to do. But that what studios do in Hollywood.
The bad guys are the best parts.
The best thing about Sci-Fi, which is my favorite genre, is that there are no rules for behavior. So you can do anything you want.
The interesting part of the process is developing the character, you know, why did he become that? Why is the guy a murderer, or why is this guy a pervert, or whatever he is. So that's the fun part for me to delve into the abyss.
The role of Leon launched my career, and now I'm a cult figure, and have been for 18 years since that role.
There's an epidemic in this country and that's drugs and alcohol. And it comes from a lot of dysfunctional family life.
There's an interesting thing that happens when you're doing film. You get caught up in that moment.
They wanted me to be the next Freddy Kreuger. I read the script, it was bad.
Walter Hill's one of the most loyal guys in town.
We were fortunate that we didn't have to go to Vietnam. We came to New York and studied acting.
Westerns was why I got into the business. I grew up on a small farm in California and all I ever wanted to do was to play gangsters and cowboys in movies.
Westerns went out, then Cops and Robbers came in.
Work begets work.
You can do a film for a small budget and if you just want to sell it to video, that's fine, you're going to make a profit and it's going to go out there.
You know they say, don't make waves. I learned my lesson.
You know, stand-up comedy is where I pretty much started out.
You never know what show is going to change your life.
He is survived by his two brothers Craig James and Chester James, along with their families.
James appeared in over a hundred films and TV series before his career was cut short by a fatal heart attack.
He married Maxine James in 1986, but they divorced in 1996.
He went to college at San Diego State University and majored in theater arts.
His parents built and operated a movie theater, and movie stars would stop by every now and then.
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