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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
March 22, 1913
Died
September 20, 1971
Place of Birth
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Also Known As
- James A. Westerfield
James Westerfield
1.1 Popularity
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James A. Westerfield (22 March 1913 – 20 September 1971) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, to candy-maker Brasher Omier Westerfield and his wife Dora Elizabeth Bailey, he was raised in Detroit, Michigan. (A news story in the June 12, 1949, issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls the information in the preceding sentence into question. It describes Westerfield as "the son of a famous producer-director" and says that he was "a youngster in Denver, Col.") He became interested in theatre as a young man and in the 1930s joined Gilmor Brown's famed Pasadena Community Playhouse, appearing in dozens of plays. He played in numerous films following his debut in 1940, then went to New York City and appeared on Broadway, winning two New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for his supporting roles in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Detective Story. He then returned to Hollywood and made more than 40 more films. Westerfield maintained an interest in the theatre. He directed more than 50 musicals in a summer-musical tent he owned in Danbury, Connecticut, and was the original stage director and producer for the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. He directed three seasons of "Theatre Under the Stars" in Vancouver, British Columbia, and appeared in musical roles with the Detroit Civic Light Opera, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Civic Light Opera. On film, Westerfield had roles in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), On The Waterfront (1954), Lucy Gallant (1955), the 1957 Budd Boetticher-directed Western Decision at Sundown starring Randolph Scott, Cowboy (1958), a repeating role in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Man's Favorite Sport (1964), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969). Westerfield had many roles on television, including seven episodes as John Murrel from 1963 to 1964 on ABC's The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Sheriff Bert Elmore in the 1957 episode, "The Case of the Angry Mourner." He also appeared in an episode of The Lone Ranger in 1954 entitled "Texas Draw." Westerfield's other appearances were on such series as The Rifleman, The Californians, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Alaskans, The Rebel, Straightaway, Going My Way, The Asphalt Jungle, Hazel, The Andy Griffith Show, Daniel Boone, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Gunsmoke. He played the circus leader, Dr. Marvello, in an episode of Lost in Space "Space Circus" (1966). Westerfield as a young man was a roommate of fellow Pasadena Playhouse actor George Reeves. The two remained close friends until Reeves's death in 1959. Westerfield was married to Alice G. Fay (an actress under the name Fay Tracey), who, along with his mother, survived him. Westerfield died from a heart attack in Woodlands Hills, California, at the age of fifty-eight.
Known For
🎬
0.0
Cark Rickter
Set This Town on Fire
1973
3.0
John Applebee
Dead Aim
1971
4.0
Sheriff Berry
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
1970
0.0
The Lawyer
Bartleby
1969
5.8
Rev. Wilkerson
The Love God?
1969
7.3
Judge Parker
True Grit
1969
5.5
Sheriff
Smith!
1969
0.0
Capt. Boyle
Now You See It, Now You Don't
1968
5.7
Sheriff Matson
Mayberry R.F.D.
1968
5.3
The Outcasts
1968
Credits
🎬
Set This Town on Fire
as Cark Rickter
1973
0.0
Dead Aim
as John Applebee
1971
3.0
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
as Sheriff Berry
1970
4.0
Bartleby
as The Lawyer
1969
0.0
The Love God?
as Rev. Wilkerson
1969
5.8
True Grit
as Judge Parker
1969
7.3
Smith!
as Sheriff
1969
5.5
Now You See It, Now You Don't
as Capt. Boyle
1968
0.0
Mayberry R.F.D.
as Sheriff Matson
1968
5.7
The Outcasts
1968
5.3
Blue
as Abe Parker
1968
5.4
Hang 'em High
as Prisoner
1968
6.8
A Man Called Gannon
as Amos
1968
4.2
Mannix
1967
6.7
Judd for the Defense
1967
7.5
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
as Jack Balter
1966
5.7
The Time Tunnel
as Sheriff
1966
7.6
Scalplock
as Nehemiah
1966
6.5
The Further Adventures of Gallegher
as Charley Mardis
1965
0.0
The Wild Wild West
as McAvity
1965
7.6
Lost in Space
as Dr. Marvello
1965
7.1
Green Acres
1965
7.3
The Big Valley
as Jeb Lassiter
1965
6.1
That Funny Feeling
as Officer Brokaw
1965
6.1
The Sons of Katie Elder
as Mr. Vennar
1965
7.0
🎬
Profiles in Courage
as Sen. Samuel Pomeroy
1964
5.0
Daniel Boone
as Hand
1964
7.0
Daniel Boone
as Simon Girty
1964
7.0
Bewitched
1964
7.9
Bikini Beach
as Cop #2
1964
5.5
Man's Favorite Sport?
as Policeman
1964
6.9
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
as John Murrel
1963
5.3
The Great Adventure
as Attorney Thomas Green
1963
0.0
Son of Flubber
as Officer Hanson
1963
6.0
The Dakotas
1963
5.7
Going My Way
1962
5.7
The Lucy Show
as Weitzman
1962
7.0
The Beverly Hillbillies
1962
6.9
Birdman of Alcatraz
as Jess Younger
1962
7.5
Straightaway
1961
0.0
Homicidal
as Alfred S. Adrims
1961
6.4
The Asphalt Jungle
1961
5.0
The Absent-Minded Professor
as Officer Hanson
1961
6.5
The Plunderers
as Mike Baron
1960
6.2
The Andy Griffith Show
as Uncle Ollie
1960
7.6
My Three Sons
1960
6.5
Thriller
as Al Matthews
1960
6.6
The Tall Man
1960
6.3
Wild River
as Cal Garth
1960
7.2
The Rebel
as Suee
1959
4.7
The Alaskans
1959
5.5
The Twilight Zone
as Anthony O'Toole
1959
8.5
Johnny Ringo
as Aben Burke
1959
5.7
Law of the Plainsman
as Joshua Jones
1959
6.0
Bonanza
as Arthur Blackwell
1959
7.5
Tightrope
1959
5.5
The Hangman
as Herb Loftus
1959
6.3
The Gunfight at Dodge City
as Reverend Howard
1959
5.6
The Shaggy Dog
as Officer Hanson
1959
6.2
Rawhide
as Matt Lucas
1959
7.2
Rawhide
as Mort Henry
1959
7.2
Old Man
as Warden
1958
0.0
Bat Masterson
as Shapley Howell
1958
6.1
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
1958
5.8
The Rifleman
1958
7.1
The Texan
1958
5.5
Wanted: Dead or Alive
as Dr. Langland
1958
6.8
The Proud Rebel
as Birm Bates
1958
6.1
Cowboy
as Mike Adams
1958
6.3
Decision at Sundown
as Otis, the Bartender
1957
6.3
Trackdown
1957
6.4
The Walter Winchell File
1957
5.0
Maverick
1957
6.9
Perry Mason
as Sheriff Elmore
1957
7.7
Perry Mason
as Roger Quigley
1957
7.7
Jungle Heat
as Harvey Mathews
1957
4.3
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
as McAllister
1957
6.2
The Helen Morgan Story
as Frank Piggin
1957
0.0
Three Brave Men
as Chief O'Reilly
1956
4.8
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
as Bert Farrow
1956
6.0
🎬
State Trooper
1956
5.0
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
1956
5.0
Away All Boats
1956
5.1
Man with the Gun
as Mr. Zender
1955
6.1
Lucy Gallant
as Harry Wilson
1955
7.0
The 20th Century Fox Hour
1955
5.4
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Commissioner Cummings
1955
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Pops Lafferty
1955
7.8
Gunsmoke
as Rance Bradley
1955
6.6
Gunsmoke
as Harry Duggan
1955
6.6
Gunsmoke
as Cleed
1955
6.6
Gunsmoke
as Franks
1955
6.6
The Scarlet Coat
as Col. Jameson
1955
6.4
The Cobweb
as James Petlee
1955
5.6
Chief Crazy Horse
as Caleb Mantz
1955
5.6
The Violent Men
as Sheriff Magruder
1955
6.4
Three Hours to Kill
as Sam Minor
1954
4.7
The Human Jungle
as Marty Harrison
1954
4.8
Lassie
1954
6.1
On the Waterfront
as Big Mac
1954
7.9
Inner Sanctum
1954
7.0
🎬
The Bachelor Party
as Bookkeeper
1953
0.0
General Electric Theater
as Bartender
1953
6.4
General Electric Theater
as The General
1953
6.4
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
as Joe London
1951
6.2
🎬
Casey, Crime Photographer
1951
0.0
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
as Harvey (Zoo Attendant) (uncredited)
1950
6.1
Side Street
as Charlie (policeman)
1950
6.4
Studio One
as Captain James Reagan
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Bilgeboy / Jimmy Scaggs
1948
5.0
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
6.3
The Philco Television Playhouse
as H.T. Carmichael
1948
6.3
The Chase
as Job the Butler
1946
6.2
Undercurrent
as Henry Gilson
1946
5.9
Around the World
as Bashful Marine
1943
5.0
The Pride of the Yankees
as Spectator (uncredited)
1942
7.4
The Magnificent Ambersons
as Policeman at Accident (uncredited)
1942
7.3
About Face
as Soldier with Daisy (uncredited)
1942
6.0
Highway West
as Swede, Trucker at Cafe
1941
5.8
The Howards of Virginia
as Backwoodsman
1940
6.5