James Gammon

For the engraver, see James Gammon (engraver).

James Gammon
Born	(1940-04-20)April 20, 1940 Newman, Illinois, U.S.
Died	Costa Mesa, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Liver cancer
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1966–2009
Spouse(s)	Nancy Jane Kapusta (1972-2010; his death)

James Richard Gammon (April 20, 1940 – July 16, 2010) was an American actor, known for playing grizzled "good ol' boy" types in numerous films and television series. Gammon is best known as Lou Brown, the manager in the movies Major League and Major League II, which portrayed a fictitious version of the Cleveland Indians.

Biography

Early life

Gammon was born in Newman, the son of Doris Latimer (née Toppe), a farm girl, and Donald Gammon, a musician. After his parents divorced and he bounced around home to home, he made his way to Orlando, Florida. He worked at Orlando's ABC TV affiliate WLOF Channel 9 as a cameraman and director. In his 20s, he packed up and moved to Hollywood to try to find work.

Acting career

His early television credits include appearing twice as Deputy Virgil Bramley in the NBC western series The Road West in the 1966–1967 season, which co-starred Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, and Glenn Corbett.

In the 1970s, he helped found the Met Theatre in Los Angeles. While performing there, a rep from The Public Theater saw him and had him cast as Weston in Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class in 1978. The two became friends afterward. He made his sole Broadway appearance as "Dodge" in a revival of Sam Shepard's Buried Child. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance. He also appeared on stage in Shepard's San Francisco debut of The Late Henry Moss along with Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Cheech Marin and Woody Harrelson in 2000.

Gammon may be best-remembered for his characters Lou Brown, manager of the Cleveland Indians in the Major League films, and Nick Bridges, the father of Don Johnson's title character in the television series Nash Bridges. He appeared in the films Cool Hand Luke (1967), Urban Cowboy (1980), Silverado (1985), Noon Wine (1985), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Major League (1989), The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993), Major League II (1994), Wyatt Earp (1994), Wild Bill (1995), Truman (1995), Cold Mountain (2003), and more recently Appaloosa (2008). He also had an uncredited role in Natural Born Killers (1994).

Gammon portrayed a Korean War veteran on the hit ABC series Grey's Anatomy. He played Charles Goodnight in Streets of Laredo. In 2006, he played the stern grandfather, Sam, brother of notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy, in the film Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy. Gammon also plays a supporting role in Appaloosa (2008).

Gammon provided the voices of the animated characters Marv Loach and Floyd Turbeaux in the 1999 Warner Bros. feature film The Iron Giant.

Death

Gammon died of adrenal gland and liver cancer in Costa Mesa, California.

Legacy

His friend, Sam Shepard, said this of Gammon: "This was a guy who could act circles around most other actors, and he never pretended to be other than a working kind of actor." He would go on to say about the star-studded cast of The Late Henry Moss, "I mean, a bunch of notoriously famous guys, and every single one of them would come up to me, alone, and say, ‘Who’s that Jim Gammon guy? Where did he come from?’" Shepard also would talk about why he cast Gammon, saying: "You’re probably aware of the notorious father figures in my plays, alcoholic Midwesterners who leave their families and get lost in the Southwestern desert. Jimmy had that familiarity about him with the way I grew up, the guys with the voice and the face and the whiskey. He definitely rang a bell with me."

Personal life

His first marriage ended in divorce. He has a brother, Phillip, and a sister, Sandra (Glaudell). He was married to Nancy Jane Kapusta from 1972 until his death. He has two daughters, Allison Mann and Amy Gammon.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	Cool Hand Luke	Sleepy (uncredited)	Supporting Role
1968	Journey to Shiloh	Tellis Yeager
1969	The Thousand Plane Raid	Major Varga
1970	A Man Called Horse	Ed
	Macho Callahan	Cowboy
	The Intruders	Chaunce Dykstra	television film
1972	Cry for Me, Billy	Amos	Supporting Role
1974	Macon County Line	Elisha
1975	The Wild McCullochs	1st Police Officer
	The Kansas City Massacre	Garth	television film
1976	Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw	Leather Salesman	Minor Role
	The Pom Pom Girls	Coach
1977	Black Oak Conspiracy	Deputy
	The Greatest	Mr. Harry
1979	The Sacketts	Wes Bigelow	television film
1980	On the Nickel	Peanut John	Supporting Role
	Urban Cowboy	Steve Strange
	Rage!	Joe Dean	television film
	It's My Turn	Connie Foxworth	Uncredited
	Any Which Way You Can	Palomino Bartender	Supporting Role
	Below the Belt	Luke
1981	The Big Black Pill	Captain Jake Jacqualone	television film
1982	The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez	Sheriff Frank Fly
	Deadly Encounter	Frank Kitchens
1983	M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers	Willard Kohler	television film
	Women of San Quentin	Officer
1985	Noon Wine	Sheriff
	Vision Quest	Kuch's Dad	Supporting Role
	Hell Town	Lieutenant Raymond Tracy	television film
	Sylvester	Steve	Supporting Role
	Silverado	Dawson
	The Long Hot Summer	Billy Quick	television film
	Silver Bullet	Arnie Westrum	Supporting Role
1986	Hard Traveling	Sgt. Slattery
1987	Stacking	Clate Connaloe
	Made in Heaven	Steve Shea
	Laguna Heat	Grimes	television film
	Ironweed	Reverend Chester	Supporting Role
1988	The Milagro Beanfield War	Horsethief Shorty
	Lincoln	Gen. Ulysses S. Grant	television film
1989	Major League	Lou Brown	Supporting Role
	Roe vs. Wade		television film
1990	Revenge	Texan	Supporting Role
	Coupe de Ville	Dr. Sturgeon the Cadillac Surgeon
	I Love You to Death	Lt. Larry Schooner
1991	Conagher	Smoke Parnell, Ladder Five Owner	television film
	Stranger at My Door	Sheriff Bitterman
1992	Leaving Normal	Walt	Supporting Role
	CrissCross	Emmett
	Criminal Behavior	Roy Stubbs	television film
1993	Running Cool	Ironbutt Garrett	Supporting Role
	Painted Desert	Al
	Men Don't Tell	Jack	television film
	The Adventures of Huck Finn	Deputy Hines	Supporting Role
1994	Cabin Boy	Paps
	Major League II	Lou Brown
	Hard Vice	Bronski
	Wyatt Earp	Mr. Sutherland
	Natural Born Killers	Redneck's Buddy in the Diner
1995	Wild Bill	California Joe
	Truman	Sam Rayburn	television film
1996	Two Mothers for Zachary	Chalmer
1997	Traveller	Double D	Supporting Role
	The Apostle	—	Uncredited
1998	The Man in the Iron Mask	The Commandant	Supporting Role
	Point Blank	Dad
	Love from Ground Zero	Hat
	The Hi-Lo Country	Hoover Young
	Logan's War: Bound by Honor	Ben	television film
1999	You Know My Name	Real Arkansas Tom
	The Iron Giant	Marv Loach/Floyd Turbeaux	Voice
	One Man's Hero	Gen. Zachary Taylor	Supporting Role
2000	The Cell	Teddy Lee
2002	Life or Something Like It	Pat Kerrigan
	The Country Bears	Big Al	Voice
2003	Monte Walsh	Fighting Joe Hooker/Albert Miller	television film
	Cold Mountain	Esco Swanger	Supporting Role
2004	Paradise	Old cowboy	television film
	Silver City	Sheriff Joe Skaggs	Supporting Role
2005	Don't Come Knocking	Old Ranch Hand
2006	Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy	Sam
	The Far Side of Jericho	The Preacher
	Altered	Sheriff Henderson
	What I Did for Love	Karl Ryder	television film
2007	Jesse Stone: Sea Change	Bob
	The Final Season	Jared Akers	Supporting Role
2008	Appaloosa	Earl May
2009	In the Electric Mist	Ben Hebert

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Episodes	Notes
1966	The Wild Wild West	Egan	The Night of the Freebooters	Episodic character
	The Monroes	Stennis	Night of the Wolf
1966—1967	The Road West	Deputy Virgil Bramley, Pete Fowler	The Agreement (1967), The Gunfighter (1966)
1966—1973	Gunsmoke	Arnie Jeffords, Dudley	My Father, My Son (1966), Susan Was Evil (1973)
1967	Captain Nice	—	Whatever Lola Wants
	Bonanza	Harry Jeffers	The Man Without Land
	The Invaders	Hal	The Spores
	Batman	Osiris	The Unkindest Tut of All
	Felony Squad	Mickey	Ordeal by Terror
	The Virginian	Cal Mason	A Small Taste of Justice
1968—1969	Lancer	Clint Meek, Wes	Blind Man's Bluff (1969), Chase a Wild Horse (1968)
1970	The High Chaparral	Lafe	Only the Bad Come to Sonora (1970)
1971—1974	The F.B.I.	Cauldwell, Ben McCarty	Diamond Run (1974), Turnabout (1971)
1971—1976	Cannon	Sheriff Ryder, Keely	The Quasar Kill (1976), Country Blues (1971)
1973	Dusty's Trail	Roy	Horse of Another Color (1973)
1973—1975	The Waltons	Zack Rosswell	8 Episodes (1973–1975)	Recurring Character
1974	Kung Fu	Jake	The Nature of Evil (1974)	Episodic character
1975	Barnaby Jones	Andy Lucker	The Final Burial (1974)
1976	Petrocelli	Harry	Blood Money (1976)
	Most Wanted	—	The Torch (1976)
1977—1978	Charlie's Angels	Gates, Billy	Angels in the Stretch (1978), Angels on Ice (1977)
1979	Lou Grant	—	Samaritan (1979)
1984	The Master	—	A Place to Call Home (1984)
	Cagney & Lacey	Brian Holgate	Old Debts (1984)
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Billy Don Baker	Armed Response (1985)
1986	The Equalizer	Michael Cub	Out of the Past (1986)
1987	Crime Story	Jack Claymore	The Pinnacle; The Survivor (1987)
1989	Midnight Caller	Pete Hanrahan	Tarnished Shield (1989)
	In the Heat of the Night	Sheriff Ketch Monroe	A Trip Upstate (1986)
1990—1991	Bagdad Cafe	Rudy	15 Episodes (1990–1991)	Recurring Character
1991	The Young Riders	Elias Mills	The Blood of Others (1991)	Episodic Character
1992	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Teddy Roosevelt	British East Africa, September 1909 (1992)
1992—1993	Homefront	Coach Zelnick	8 Episodes (1992–1993)	Recurring Character
1993—1994	L.A. Law	Rev. Joseph Halliday, Thomas Quinn	God is My Co-Counsel (1994), F.O.B. (1993)	Episodic Character
1996—2001	Nash Bridges	Nick Bridges	49 Episodes (1996–2001)	Recurring Character
2003	Fillmore!	Doc Hemlock	Two Wheels, Full Throtle, No Brakes (2003)	Voice
2004	LAX	Bill Barkley	The Longest Morning (2004)	Episodic Character
	Crossing Jordan	Olin Price	Justice Delayed (2004)
2007	Monk	Oates	Mr. Monk Visits a Farm (2007)
	Grey's Anatomy	Mr. Scofield	Scars and Souvenirs (2007)

External links

• James Gammon at the Internet Movie Database