[2] In 1929, Los Angeles Times art critic Arthur Millier viewed a small self-portrait by Sexton at a Los Angeles County Museum of Art show called “The Younger Painters.” Millier wrote that the "special hero of the moment seems to us to be one James (sic) Sexton… He transcends the ordinary sounding subject matter, making of this tiny panel a painting at once decoratively beautiful and highly expressive.

"[3] Sexton commenced studies under Stanton Macdonald-Wright at the Art Students League of Los Angeles, where he met Gwain Harriette Noot.

[2] During World War II, Sexton taught art, worked for several film studios, and drove a taxi to support his family.

Many prominent Los Angelinos collected his works, including Edward G. Robinson, John Huston, Paulette Goddard, and the Hollywood patron Ruth Maitland.

[2]In August 2013, Michele Fortier, the daughter of Fred Sexton, was interviewed on camera by UCLA professor Vivian Sobchack.

[10] Fortier recounted her father’s creation of the Maltese Falcon prop model for the Warner Bros. production of “The Maltese Falcon” in 1941, as well as visits to the film set where she interacted with actors Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and director John Huston.

[10] During visits to the film set, she remembered seeing a prop that was “shiny and black,” but “not like patent leather shoes.”[10] Fortier also identified initials inscribed in the right rear tail feather of a plaster Maltese Falcon prop owned by Hank Risan as her father’s.

Fortier explained that she owns many of her father’s paintings and commented that many of the signatures feature the same idiosyncratic characteristics.

[13] His wife Gwain joined him in Mexico in 1963, and together they collaborated with local artisan Tachi Castillo on designing folk dress, which were imported to the United States.