[2] Brian James was born in Melbourne, the son of the Bishop of St. Arnaud and started his career as a teacher at Ivanhoe Grammar School for four years, in 1933 joining the Royal Australian Navy, after which he was demobilised five years later, and decided to pursue a career as an actor, attending Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, making his stage debut in 1947[3] and he featured in the 1952 J.C. Williamson production of Seagulls Over Sorrento.
"[5] James appeared in several ABC drama plays in the late 1950s, including Duke In Darkness and Killer in Close-Up: The Wallace Case in 1957, Gaslight, The Small Victory, The Public Prosecutor, and The Governess (all 1958), Crime Passionel, Treason, and The House By The Stable (1959).
Other ABC drama play appearances included The Ides Of March (1961), The Physicists, Luther, and The Wind From The Icy Country (all 1964).
He appeared as George Tippett in the soap opera Skyways (1979–81) – a character he continued in the ill-fated series Holiday Island in 1981.
He also played screen father to Meryl Streep in A Cry in the Dark, the 1988 movie about the Lindy Chamberlain court case.