Biography
James Hampton was an American actor, television director and screenwriter. Born James Wade Hampton in Oklahoma City in 1936, he grew up in Dallas and studied theatre arts at the University of North Texas. He trained in New York and Los Angeles, and served in the US Army before making his screen debut in the early 1960s.
He appeared regularly on television in the 1960s and 1970s, including as Private Hannibal Dobbs in F Troop (1965–1967) and Leroy B. Simpson on The Doris Day Show (1968–1973). Film roles included Caretaker in The Longest Yard (1974), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, Bill Gibson in The China Syndrome (1979), Harold Howard in Teen Wolf (1985) and its sequel, and Jerry Woolridge in Sling Blade (1996). He also directed episodes of series such as Evening Shade.
Hampton died in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2021.
