James Booth (born David Noel Geeves; 19 December 1927 – 11 August 2005) was an English film, stage and television actor and screenwriter.

The Geeves family moved often due to their duties, serving mainly in working-class areas, where they were more financially comfortable than their neighbours; these early experiences of interacting with the working classes had a strong influence on Booth.

[2] Having been injured during World War I and left with recurring partial paralysis that affected his ability to walk, Ernest Geeves died in 1938 after suffering a stroke; Lillian subsequently married Salvation Army Lieutenant-Colonel Cliff Barnes.

[2] Booth made his first professional appearance as a member of the Old Vic company in a production of Timon of Athens (1956) with Ralph Richardson.

In 1960 he starred in the stage musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be which became a hit and Booth, who played its most pungent character, looked poised for stardom.

Hughes cast Booth in two more movies for Warwick, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) with Peter Finch and In the Nick (1960) with Newley and Aubrey.

The financial failure of these films saw the end of Warwick, but Irving Allen then used Booth in a movie for a new company, The Hellions (1961), shot in South Africa.

Booth did Stray Cats and Empty Bottles (1964) for TV and played the lead in a comedy, French Dressing (1964), the feature debut of Ken Russell.

[10] Booth was a policeman in a heist movie, Robbery (1967), for Levine, alongside his Zulu co-star Stanley Baker.

Booth went to Australia to make Adam's Woman (1970) and played Rod Taylor's best friend in The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970).

He then relocated to Hollywood and found work as a character actor in films like Airport '77 (1977), Murder in Peyton Place (1977), Wheels (1978), Evening in Byzantium (1978), Jennifer: A Woman's Story (1979), Caboblanco (1980), The Jazz Singer (1980) and Zorro: The Gay Blade (1981).

He played a pornography baron living in enforced exile in Spain in series 2 of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in 1986[14] and was seen in Moon in Scorpio (1987), Deep Space (1988), The Lady and the Highwayman (1988), and Have a Nice Night (1990).

[15] Later acting appearances included Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992), Inner Sanctum II (1994), The Breed (2001), Red Phone 2, and Keeping Mum (2005).

He married Paula Delaney in 1960 and they had two sons and two daughters and lived in Buckinghamshire, Los Angeles and Hadleigh, Essex,[16] where he died on 11 August 2005 aged 77.