James Westerfield

James A. Westerfield (March 22, 1913 – September 20, 1971) was an American character actor of stage, film, and television. Early years Westerfield was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to candy-maker Brasher Omier Westerfield and his wife Dora Elizabeth Bailey. He was raised in Detroit, Michigan. (A news story in the June 12, 1949, issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls the information in the preceding sentence into question. It describes Westerfield as "the son of a famous producer-director" and says he was "a youngster in Denver, Col.") Stage career Westerfield became interested in theatre as a young man and in the 1930s joined Gilmor Brown's famed Pasadena Community Playhouse, appearing in dozens of plays. He played in numerous films following his screen debut in 1940, then went to New York City and performed on Broadway, winning two New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for his supporting roles in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Detective Story. He then returned to Hollywood and was cast in more than 40 additional films. Despite his growing involvement acting in motion pictures and later in television productions, Westerfield maintained an active interest in the theatre for the remainder of his career. He directed more than 50 musicals in a summer-musical tent he owned in Danbury, Connecticut, and was the original stage director and producer for the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. He directed three seasons of "Theatre Under the Stars" in Vancouver, British Columbia, and appeared in musical roles with the Detroit Civic Light Opera, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Civic Light Opera. He also was active in the Gaetano Merola Opera Company in San Francisco in the early 1940s.