James Anderson (American actor)

Anderson was born to J. O. Anderson and his wife. His sister was Mary Anderson, who also had an acting career.^[3]

In 1938, while attending Shades-Cahaba High School, he played halfback on the football team.^[4] He later studied acting for a year at the University of Alabama.^[2]

After leaving Alabama for Los Angeles, Anderson trained under Max Reinhardt for six months. While there, he starred in the play Zero Hour,^[2] written by George Sklar and Albert Maltz.^[5] Weeks after starring in the play, in November 1940, Anderson signed a contract with Warner Bros.^[2]

He made more than 120 appearances, mostly in television and several films between 1941 and 1969. He made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murder victim Frank Anderson in the 1958 episode, "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client," and murder victim Stanley Piper in the 1960 episode, "The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker." He appeared in a number of westerns throughout his career, often playing a gun-for-hire or outlaw...including "Sanctuary at Crystal Springs", the controversial 1963 episode of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series The Dakotas, that led to the series' cancellation, where he played the main antagonist.^{[citation needed]}. He also appeared on Gunsmoke in 1963, playing an outlaw named "Harmon" in S12E7's "The Wrong Man". That same year he guest starred on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the 1963 episode "Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans" (S1E28).

Anderson was taken to the UCLA Medical Center with a serious injury - a skull fracture - in the summer of 1956. The hospital reported the injury to the police, but newspapers at the time reported that Anderson couldn't be questioned due to the severity of his injury. ^[6]

Anderson died suddenly on September 14, 1969 while on location for Little Big Man in Billings, Montana. He was two months past his 49th birthday and was survived by his mother and sister.^[7][8] His cause of death was reported as drug intoxication (barbiturate poisoning).^[9]

In 2010, Mary Badham, who starred alongside Anderson in To Kill a Mockingbird, praised his method acting style: "[W]hen he walked on the set, he was that character. He gave everybody the willies and we were all intimidated by him".^[10]