10 Hollywood Legends You've Probably Never Heard Of

Tall, with that one-of-a-kind mug, all wide, staring eyes and bristling menace, it’s fair to say that most fans of cinema and television over the last four decades or so will instantly remember the late Brion James’ when they see him. For all that, however, very few will be able to place the character actor’s name, or recall a definitive filmography.

James may be best known for playing Leon Kowalski in Blade Runner - the first replicant seen in the film, the one who fails the Voight-Kampff test, murders the Blade Runner administering it and later nearly kills Deckard himself. That’s nowhere near his only appearance, though: James was a formidable presence in well over a hundred movies of all kinds.

James grew up with movies from infancy, frequently running the projector at the cinema his parents owned and operated in Beaumont, California. A theatre graduate and regular in the New York dramatic scene of the late sixties and early seventies, James got his first big break in television, but was introduced to feature films by director Walter Hill, who cast him in both Southern Comfort and 48 Hrs. in 1981 and 1982.

Like all great character actors, James could have been typecast save for his work ethic and talent. Considering no form, genre or project beneath him, he dipped a toe into westerns like Silverado, horror like The Horror Show, action like Tango & Cash, comedy like Radioland Murders, period pieces like Roots and science fiction like The Fifth Element, on both the small and the big screen.

At the time of his death of a heart attack in 1999, Brion James was fifty-four years old and still in huge demand, making seven movies a year and racking up a lifetime score of one hundred and fourteen feature films in twenty-four years in the movie business.