James Wainwright

General purpose actor 'James Wainwright' (qv) was born in Illinois in 1938 and discovered he had artistic talent at a young age, landing a scholarship at Carnegie University. This active pursuit was all but dissipated when he decided to join the Marines. Following his honorable discharge, he made do with a number of unskilled jobs until he found an interest in another area of the fine arts -- acting. He auditioned and earned a seat as a student at the Actors' Studio, then proceeded to migrate West in the late 60s to pursue film and TV stardom.Initially cast as a ruthless heavy, his image was redeemed somewhat after landing a recurring role in 1969 on the already-established TV program _Daniel Boone (1964)_ (qv). In 1972, he fronted in his own weekly series _Jigsaw (1972)_ (qv) as dogged Lt. Frank Dain of the California State Police Department's Bureau of Missing Persons--a man who didn't always play by the rules. What could have been his ticket to TV stardom barely lasted a season. In years to come he was seen in secondary support to a number of Oscar-winning cinema stars, notably 'Clint Eastwood' (qv) in _Joe Kidd (1972)_ (qv), 'George Kennedy' (qv) in the prison drama _Mean Dog Blues (1978)_ (qv) and 'Walter Matthau' (qv) and 'Robin Williams' (qv) in _The Survivors (1983)_ (qv). He also appeared in a number of mini-movies, particularly that of a younger J. Edgar Hoover who grows up to be bulldog 'Broderick Crawford' (qv) in _The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)_ (qv), and guested on the more popular shows including "Cannon," "The Fall Guy," "Dynasty," "Magnum P.I.," "Hardcastle & McCormick" and "Hunter."In his second TV series he reverted back to playing the heavy as an unstable scientist who invents and unleashes humanistic robots to take over the world in _Beyond Westworld (1980)_ (qv). Based on the popular 1973 'Yul Brynner' (qv) movie, the program was very short-lived. Following additional episodic work on TV, as well as the lowbudget action film _Mission Manila (1988)_ (qv), Wainwright left the screen. Little was heard from or about the actor until his reported death from lung cancer on December 20, 1999 at age 61.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net