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Actor and singer-songwriter James McEachin dies at 94
McEachin appeared in four Clint Eastwood movies and portrayed cops many times during his long and illustrious career. He's also a war hero and author
- PUBLISHED: Wed 28 May 2025, 11:50 AM
- By:
- ANI
Veteran Hollywood actor and singer-songwriter James McEachin has died at the age of 94.
McEachin, who wrote and produced songs for Otis Redding before turning to acting to portray cops in his own NBC Mystery Movie series and in 18 of the popular Perry Mason telefilms, died on January 11 this year and was interred last month at Los Angeles National Cemetery, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
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He appeared alongside Clint Eastwood in four movies—Coogan’s Bluff (1968), Play Misty for Me (1971), Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Sudden Impact (1983).
James McEachin was born on May 20, 1930, in Rennert, North Carolina, and raised in Hackensack, New Jersey. At 17, he joined the US Army in August 1947.
McEachin spent more than two years in Japan as part of his first three-year term, then re-enlisted for another three years. As a member of the 2nd Infantry Division, he was wounded in an ambush and left for dead before being rescued. (He was awarded both the Purple Heart and Silver Star in 2005.)
In 2002, McEachin played a liberal Supreme Court justice on First Monday, a short-lived CBS drama from Donald P Bellisario that starred James Garner and Joe Mantegna.
McEachin was appointed a US Army Reserve Ambassador in 2005 to spend time speaking with soldiers and veterans. A year later, he wrote, produced and starred (with David Huddleston, a castmate on Tenafly) in a 23-minute video called Old Glory that the military community embraced, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
His one-man play, Above the Call; Beyond the Duty, opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 2008 and played LA's Mark Taper Forum three years later. He portrayed Old Soldier, a character who "pries open tough issues left in the wake of battle, boldly confronting challenges that are facing those serving in our military today while reconciling the spirit of one who has killed in war."
McEachin also wrote several books, including 1996's Tell Me a Tale: A Novel of the Old South, 1997's Farewell to the Mockingbirds, 2000's Say Goodnight to the Boys in Blue and 2021's Swing Low My Sweet Chariot: The Ballad of Jimmy Mack, a memoir.
His wife, Lois, whom he married in 1960, died in 2017.