James Gaines | |
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Born |
James Larry M. Gaines Jr. May 18, 1955 Maui, Hawaii |
Occupation | Film actor / Writer / Director |
James Gaines, birth name James Larry M. Gaines Jr., is an African-American-Filipino character actor, writer and director with dual nationality, born on May 18, 1955, in Maui, Hawaii. He was sometimes also credited as Jaimes Gaines, Jim Gaines, and James Gainers.
He acted mainly in low-budget action films in the Philippines during the 1980s, many of which were produced by K.Y. Lim's Silver Star Film Company (called Kinavesa in the Philippines), and directed by Teddy Page or John Gale. Next to Mike Monty, with whom he appeared in several films together, Gaines was one of the most prolific actors in Filipino B-movies. He also appeared in some Italian and American productions shot in the archipelago.
Gaines acted in numerous movies with fellow Filipino exploitation veterans Romano Kristoff, Bruce Baron, Mike Cohen, Ken Watanabe (not to be confused with the other, more famous Ken Watanabe), Ann Milhench, Gwendolyn Hung, and Ronnie Patterson. Gaines also appeared in all of the films Richard Harrison made for Silver Star: As Digger the informer in Fireback, as Tom in Hunter's Crossing, as a gangster in Blood Debts (1983), and as Greene, one of the heroic mercenaries led by Harrison in Intrusion Cambodia (1984). Characterized by very low production values and often seemingly improvised narratives, the Silver Star films have since become minor cult films in Z-movie fandom.