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'James Robertson Justice' (15 June 1907 - 2 July 1975) was a popular English character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Contents

Life and work

Selected Films

External links

Life and work

Some reference works say he was born in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, in 1905. However, his birth certificate shows he was born in Lewisham in South London, in 1907. Justice helped perpetuate the myth as he felt strongly about his Scottish ancestry.
James Robertson Justice worked as a journalist and botanist, fought in the Spanish Civil War, on the Republican side and served as a sailor in the Second World War. He unsuccessfully contested a constituency for the Labour Party in the 1950 general election and was later Rector of the University of Edinburgh.
He served as secretary of the British Ice Hockey Association in the early 1930s and managed the national team at the 1932 European Championships in Berlin to finish in seventh place. He combined his administrative duties in 1931-32 with a season as goaltender with the London Lions.
As an actor, with his dominant personality and booming voice he soon established himself as a major supporting player in British comedy films, especially the "Doctor" series of the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with ''Doctor in the House'' in 1954 playing Sir Lancelot Spratt.
In his films he was sometimes credited as ''Seamus Mòr na Feusag'' (Scottish Gaelic, translation: Big James with the Beard), ''James R. Justice'', ''James Robertson'' or ''James Robertson-Justice''.
He appeared in four films starring Gregory Peck.
On 31 August, 1957 James helped launch the TV station Scottish Television, hosting the channel's first show, ''This is Scotland''.
A biography called ''James Robertson Justice — What's The Bleeding-Time?'' (named after a joke in the first Doctor film) is due to be published by Tomahawk Press in September 2007.(ISBN 0953192679)

Selected Films

★ ''Vice Versa'' (1947)

★ ''Scott of the Antarctic'' (1948)

★ ''Quartet'' (1948)

★ ''Whisky Galore!'' (1949)

★ ''Captain Horatio Hornblower'' (1951)

★ ''David and Bathsheba'' (1951)

★ ''The Sword and the Rose'' (1953)

★ ''Doctor in the House'' (1954)

★ ''Doctor at Sea'' (1955)

★ ''Doctor at Large'' (1957)

★ ''Orders to Kill'' (1958)

★ ''Raising the Wind'' (1961)

★ ''Murder, She Said'' (1961)

★ ''Very Important Person'' (1961)

★ ''The Guns of Navarone'' (1961) (also narrated)

★ ''The Fast Lady'' 1962

★ ''Doctor in Distress'' (1963)

★ ''You Must be Joking!'' (1965)

★ ''Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'' (1965) (narrator)

★ ''Doctor in Clover (1966)

★ ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' (1968)

External links

★

★ Britmovie - James Robertson Justice

★ Gazetteer for Scotland James Robertson Justice

★ James Robertson Justice Website