James Hampton (actor)

Hampton was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and raised in Dallas, Texas, where his father operated a cleaning business. He majored in theatre arts at the University of North Texas in Denton. While attending UNT, he was a member of the Gamma Lambda chapter of Kappa Alpha Order. After a series of failed jobs including bodyguard, bartender, and photojournalist, he was inducted into the United States Army.[1] He was stationed in Germany and performed with the USO, for which he won awards.

Following his service, he performed in summer stock in Texas and then moved to New York City, where he was given his first film role - the Academy Award-nominated short subject The Cliffdwellers. Hampton's next role came as the lead character in a May 1963 Gunsmoke episode entitled "Jeb", featuring his friend and series regular Burt Reynolds.

Hampton is known for his roles in CBS's The Doris Day Show (as Leroy, the handyman); ABC's F Troop (as Hannibal Dobbs the incompetent bugler); Robert Aldrich's The Longest Yard (1974); Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975); Teen Wolf (1985); the Teen Wolf television series (1986 to 1989); Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988); and Sling Blade (1996). Hampton guest starred as Jim Rockford's cousin Aaron Ironwood in a 1975 episode of NBC's The Rockford Files. He received a HALO Award for Hawmps!, and a Golden Globe Award nomination for "Most Promising Newcomer" for the part of "Caretaker" in The Longest Yard. He was also the spokesman for the American Egg Board.

In 1964, Hampton was cast as publisher William Randolph Hearst in the episode "The Paper Dynasty" of the syndicated western television series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Hearst struggles to turn a profit despite increased circulation of The San Francisco Examiner. James Lanphier (1920-1969) plays Ambrose Bierce; Robert O. Cornthwaite was cast as Sam Chamberlain.[2]

In 1980, he starred alongside Gary Collins in the low-budget movie Hangar 18. Filmed primarily in Big Spring, Texas, the two played NASA astronauts trying to expose a UFO coverup.

In 2012, Hampton appeared in an advertisement on MeTV touting some of the shows in which he had guest starred, including Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and The Rockford Files.

Hampton married his wife actress Mary Deese in 2002. They reside in Texas.[3]