George Clifton James (May 29, 1920 – April 15, 2017) was an American actor known for roles as a prison floorwalker in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Sheriff J.W.

Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), the sheriff in Silver Streak (1976), a Texas tycoon in The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977), and the owner of the scandalous 1919 Chicago White Sox baseball team in Eight Men Out (1988).

Years earlier he portrayed a serious character in The Reivers (1969),[5] opposite Steve McQueen, playing a mean, corrupt country sheriff.

He guest-starred again as Tenner Jackson, a successful poker player later killed for his winnings in the episode “The Wrong Man” - alongside Carroll O’Connor (S12E7).

His other film roles include those of a wealthy Montana land baron whose cattle are being rustled in Rancho Deluxe (1975) and as the source who tips off a newspaperman to a potentially explosive story in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

James was featured a number of times by writer-director John Sayles, including Eight Men Out (1988), Lone Star (1996) and Sunshine State (2002).