- He book-ended his movie career with classics: his first and last movie roles were both in Best Picture Oscar winners, and each featured two Best Actor Oscar winners in lead roles, one of whom won for that particular movie: In the Heat of the Night (1967) with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, and Unforgiven (1992) with Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman.
- In 2000 he exhibited his paintings in New York, Miami, and Boston.
- The only child of George Anthony (1893-1951) and Marika Palla Anthony (1913-2008), who immigrated to the United States from Greece in the 1940s, James moved at age 18 with his widowed mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She cleaned houses and he cleaned bathrooms to make ends meet and to pay for his acting classes.
- After his death, he was cremated and his ashes scattered.
- Played tight end on his high school football team.
- He was a lifelong Democrat.
- He switched his first and last names when he became an actor, because there was already a 'James Anthony' registered with the union.
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