James McEachin

James McEachin
McEachin reads a narrative on the conflict at a Department of Defense salute to the Korean War in 2003.
Born	(1930-05-20) May 20, 1930 (age 86) Rennert, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1967–2004
Spouse(s)	Lois McEachin (1950's-present)

James McEachin (born May 20, 1930) is an American actor, award-winningauthor, and known for his many character roles such as portraying police Lieutenant Brock in several Perry Mason television movies. As the star of the television detective series Tenafly he is (along with Susan Saint James of McMillan & Wife) one of the last surviving actors to have starred as a title character from a series featured on the 1970s' NBC Mystery Movie.

McEachin served in the United States Army before, and then during, the Korean War. Serving in King Company, 9th Infantry Regiment (United States), 2nd Infantry Division, he was wounded (nearly fatally) in an ambush and nearly left for dead. McEachin was one of only two soldiers to survive the ambush. He was awarded both the Purple Heart and Silver Star in 2005 by California Congressman David Dreier after McEachin participated in a Veterans History Project interview given by Dreier's office and in which they discovered McEachin had no copies of his own military records. Dreier's office quickly traced the records and notified McEachin of the Silver Star commendation and awarding him all seven of his medals of valor shortly thereafter, fifty years after his service.

Following his military career, McEachin dabbled in civil service, first as a fireman and then a policeman in Hackensack, New Jersey, before he moved to California and became a record producer. Known as Jimmy Mack in the industry, he worked with young artists such as Otis Redding and went on to produce The Furys. He began his acting career shortly after, and was signed by Universal as a contract actor in the 1960s. He was regularly cast in professional, "solid citizen" occupational roles, such as a lawyer or a police commander, guesting on numerous series such as Hawaii Five-O, Rockford Files, Mannix, The Feather and Father Gang, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Diagnosis Murder, Dragnet, It Takes a Thief, and Adam-12, and in films such as Uptight (1968), The Undefeated (1969), The Lawyer (1970), Buck and the Preacher (1972), The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972) and Fuzz (1972). He played Mr. Turner, a tax collector for the I.R.S., and later a character called Solomon Jackson, a co-worker that Archie Bunker tries to recruit for his social club, on the television show All in the Family. He played the deejay Sweet Al Monte in Play Misty for Me (1971) with Clint Eastwood. In 1973, McEachin starred as Harry Tenafly, the title character in Tenafly, a short-lived detective series about a police officer turned private detective who relied on his wits and hard work rather than guns and fistfights. He also appeared occasionally as Lieutenant Ron Crockett on Emergency!. In 1978 he played a police officer chasing Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) in Every Which Way But Loose. In 1979, he played the role of a jaded ex-marine high school baseball coach in The White Shadow episode Out at Home.