--- name: "James Craig" canonical: "https://film.one/person/james-craig" roles: ["Actor"] born: "4 February 1912" died: "27 June 1985" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 68 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T00:55:38.786756+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # James Craig Actor. Born 4 February 1912 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Died 27 June 1985. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 4 February 1912, Nashville, Tennessee, USA - **Died:** 27 June 1985 - **Active:** 1940–1943 - **Also known as:** James Henry Meador - **Average Fi1m score:** 68, as actor, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Craig_(actor), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1680220, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0185883/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/82860 ## Fi1m on James Craig > A square-jawed leading man who spent the war years standing where Clark Gable would have stood, James Craig had the jaw and the voice and very little argument in either. In *Kitty Foyle* he reads his sensible lines as if from a leaflet, and Ginger Rogers decides without him. Mark, the doctor without money in *Kitty Foyle* (1940), has proposed to Ginger Rogers and is waiting for an answer. James Craig plays the wait as a man who has already filled in the forms. He is tall, square in the jaw, pleasant in the voice, and every sensible thing he says arrives in the same even tone, as if he were reading it from the leaflet in the waiting room. Rogers acts opposite him and around him and, in the mirror scene, opposite herself, and she gets more out of her own reflection than she does out of him. That was his breakthrough, and it tells you most of what you need to know. Craig had been in uncredited and supporting parts at Paramount and Columbia since 1937, then at Universal, and the loan-out to RKO for *Kitty Foyle* got him noticed. The lead in *All That Money Can Buy* (1941), the fantasy also known as *The Devil and Daniel Webster*, followed, and there were reviewers even then who found him too handsome and too intense for a farmer who sells his soul. Then MGM signed him, in the early 1940s, for a plain reason: Clark Gable was going into uniform, and Craig had the same jaw and something like the same voice. *The Human Comedy* (1943), with Craig as Tom Spangler, was the largest of the A-pictures that came out of the arrangement. The arrangement ended when Gable came home. After the war Craig went back to supporting work and B-westerns, where the Texas drawl noted in his early training was an asset and nobody asked him to carry the picture. He turned up in Fritz Lang's *While the City Sleeps* (1956) as 'Honest' Harry Kritzer, worked in television from the mid-1950s, and had one of his last feature parts in *The Devil's Brigade* (1968). He retired from acting in 1972 and went into estate agency. We have only reviewed *Kitty Foyle*, and it is fair to say Trumbo's script gives Mark nothing to be but a set of good opinions with a stethoscope. But we watched Craig's proposal waiting to feel something for the man making it, and we never did; the choice at the pier is meant to be a choice, and he is a large part of the reason it is not. Sam Wood shoots him plainly and lets him alone, which is generous to Rogers and no help to Craig. He plays Mark as if being sound were the same as being interesting. He stood where a bigger star would have stood, looked right, said his lines clearly and did not get in the way, and for a few wartime years that was a job the studio needed done. Watch *Kitty Foyle* for Rogers, and notice how completely she makes up her mind without him. ## Biography James Craig (born James Henry Meador) was an American actor. He studied at the Rice Institute, initially planning a career in medicine, before turning to acting after a visit to Hollywood. He began appearing in films in 1937, initially in low-budget westerns and serials. Craig's breakthrough came with the role of Mark in *Kitty Foyle* (1940). He signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appeared in films including *All That Money Can Buy* (1941), *The Human Comedy* (1943) and *Kismet* (1944). He later took supporting roles in *Side Street* (1950), *While the City Sleeps* (1956) and *The Devil's Brigade* (1968), and worked in television series such as *Have Gun, Will Travel* (1957). After retiring from acting in 1972 he worked in real estate. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, latimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *The Human Comedy* (1943), Fi1m 66, as Tom Spangler — [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md) - *Kitty Foyle* (1940), Fi1m 70, as Mark — [page](https://film.one/film/kitty-foyle.md) ## Complete filmography (84) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The ABC Afternoon Playbreak* (1972), series, as John Rodman - *Doomsday Machine* (1972), as Dr. Haines - *The Tormentors* (1971), Actor - *Bigfoot* (1970), as Cyrus - *If He Hollers, Let Him Go!* (1968), as Police Chief Jim - *The Devil's Brigade* (1968), as Maj. Gen. Knapp - *Arizona Bushwhackers* (1968), as Ike Clanton - *Custer* (1967), series, Actor - *Fort Utah* (1967), as Bo Greer - *Hostile Guns* (1967), as Ned Cooper - *Venus Flytrap* (1967), as Dr. Bragan - *The Virginian* (1962), series, as Sgt. Wayne - *Four Fast Guns* (1960), as Tom Sabin - *Man or Gun* (1958), as Pinch Corley - *Ghost Diver* (1957), as Roger Bristol - *Naked In The Sun* (1957), as Osceola - *Have Gun, Will Travel* (1957), series, Actor - *The Cyclops* (1957), as Russ Bradford - *Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend* (1957), as Ep Clark - *The Persuader* (1957), as Bick Justin - *The Women of Pitcairn Island* (1956), as Jeb Page - *Massacre* (1956), as Ezparza - *While the City Sleeps* (1956), as "Honest" Harry Kritzer - *Last of the Desperados* (1955), as Sheriff Pat Garrett - *The Millionaire* (1955), series, as Tom Garrity - *Code Two* (1953), as Police Lt. Redmon - *Fort Vengeance* (1953), as Dick Ross - *Hurricane Smith* (1952), as Gorvahlsen - *Drums in the Deep South* (1951), as Maj. Clay Clayburn - *The Strip* (1951), as Delwyn 'Sonny' Johnson - *A Lady Without Passport* (1950), as Chief Frank Westlake, INS - *Side Street* (1950), as George Garsell / Mr. Howard - *Northwest Stampede* (1948), as Dan Bennett - *The Man from Texas* (1948), as Tobias Simms - *Dark Delusion* (1947), as Tommy Coalt - *Little Mister Jim* (1947), as Capt. Big Jim Tukker - *Boys' Ranch* (1946), as Dan Walker - *Appointment in Tokyo* (1945), as Narrator - *She Went to the Races* (1945), as Steve Canfield - *Our Vines Have Tender Grapes* (1945), as Nels Halverson - *Dangerous Partners* (1945), as Jeff Caighn - *Gentle Annie* (1944), as Lloyd Richland aka Rich Williams - *Kismet* (1944), as Caliph - *Marriage Is a Private Affair* (1944), as Captain Miles Lancing - *The Heavenly Body* (1944), as Lloyd X. Hunter - *Twenty Years After* (1944), as (archive footage) - *Lost Angel* (1943), as Mike Regan - *Swing Shift Maisie* (1943), as Brian 'Breezy' McLaughlin - *The Human Comedy* (1943), as Tom Spangler — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md) - *Freedom Comes High* (1943), Actor - *Seven Miles from Alcatraz* (1942), as Champ Larkin - *Northwest Rangers* (1942), as Frank 'Blackie' Marshal - *The Omaha Trail* (1942), as Patrick Terence "Pat" Candel - *Friendly Enemies* (1942), as Bill Pfeiffer - *Valley of the Sun* (1942), as Jonathan Ware - *Unexpected Uncle* (1941), as Johnny Kerrigan - *All That Money Can Buy* (1941), as Jabez Stone - *Kitty Foyle* (1940), as Mark — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/kitty-foyle.md) - *Law and Order* (1940), as Brant - *Seven Sinners* (1940), as Ensign - *I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now* (1940), as Ray - *South to Karanga* (1940), as Steve Hawley - *Winners of the West* (1940), as Jim Jackson - *Zanzibar* (1940), as Steve Marland - *The House Across the Bay* (1940), as Brenda's Friend - *Black Friday* (1940), as Reporter Ernst Gives Notes To - *Cafe Hostess* (1940), as Rocky - *Taming of the West* (1939), as Handy Clem - *Scandal Sheet* (1939), as Mann - *Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise* (1939), as Swindler Driving Car (uncredited) - *A Woman is the Judge* (1939), as Detective (uncredited) - *The Man They Could Not Hang* (1939), as Juror Watkins - *Overland with Kit Carson* (1939), as Tennessee - *Good Girls Go to Paris* (1939), as Party Guest (uncredited) - *Pest from the West* (1939), as Pedro (uncredited) - *Blind Alley* (1939), as Joe - *Blondie Meets the Boss* (1939), as (uncredited) - *Flying G-Men* (1939), as John Cummings - *The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt* (1939), as Party Guest (uncredited) - *North of Shanghai* (1939), as Jed Howard - *Pride of the West* (1938), as Nixon - *The Big Broadcast of 1938* (1938), as Steward (uncredited) - *Thunder Trail* (1937), as Bob Tate - *The Love Test* (1935), as Boiler Man ## Gallery - ![James Craig](https://film.one/media/person/1231840/gallery-eb6035531e26.jpg) James Craig — Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/James_Craig_in_Boys_Ranch_trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Barbara Payton & James Craig in Drums in the Deep South - publicity still (cropped) (1951)](https://film.one/media/person/1231840/gallery-029bb17aa9f4.jpg) Barbara Payton & James Craig in Drums in the Deep South - publicity still (cropped) (1951) — unknown (RKO), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Barbara_Payton-James_Craig_in_Drums_of_the_Deep_South_still.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![James Craig](https://film.one/media/person/1231840/gallery-c34cc8af7207.jpg) James Craig — Image via TMDB - ![James Craig](https://film.one/media/person/1231840/gallery-bf03f8fbd429.jpg) James Craig — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/james-craig