James Robertson Justice | |
---|---|
Born |
James Norval Harald Robertson Justice 15 June 1907 Lee, London, England, UK |
Died | 2 July 1975 Romsey, Hampshire, England, UK |
(aged 68)
Resting place | Scotland |
Other names | Seamus Mor na Feaseg James R. Justice James Robertson James Robertson-Justice |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1944–71 |
Spouse(s) | Dillys Ethel Hayden (1941–68) Irene von Meyendorff (1975–his death) |
Children | James Norval (1945–49) |
James Norval Harald Robertson Justice (15 June 1907 – 2 July 1975) was a popular Anglo-Scottish character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
The son of an Aberdeen-born geologist and named after his father, James Robertson Justice was born in Lee, a suburb of Lewisham in South London, in 1907. Educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Justice studied science at University College London, but left after a year and became a geology student at the University of Bonn, where he again left after just a year. He spoke many languages (possibly up to 20) including Spanish, French, Greek, Danish, Russian, German, Italian, Dutch and Gaelic.
Justice returned to the UK in 1927, and became a journalist with Reuters in London, alongside Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. After a year he emigrated to Canada, where he worked as an insurance salesman, taught English at a boys' school, became a lumberjack and mined for gold. He came back to Britain penniless, working his passage on a Dutch freighter washing dishes in the ship's galley to pay his fare.