Not everyone who moves to Hollywood is chasing instant fame. Some people come because they just can't picture living anywhere else. James Kenneth "Jimmy" Bangley was one of those people. For nearly thirty years, he worked as an actor and quietly became known as a Hollywood film historian. Whether he was acting in Shakespeare plays, doing stand-up on Sunset Boulevard, or digging up forgotten stories from Hollywood's silent era, Bangley gave his life to the industry he loved. He may not have found fame, but he always found fulfillment.
By Allan R. Ellenberger
Jimmy Bangley was born on July 11, 1956, in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in Suffolk. As a kid, he loved old movies and spent hours watching classics with his father, dreaming of being an actor one day. At Suffolk High School, he acted in plays like Our Town and performed with the Norfolk Savoyards in The Pirates of Penzance. His classmates thought he was outgoing and funny, voting him "Craziest" and "Best All Around" when he graduated in 1974.
His parents, James H. Bangley Jr. and Mary Frances Bangley, saw how passionate he was. For his graduation, they gave him enough money to visit California. They thought he would check it out and come home after a week. Instead, Hollywood changed his life for good.
Bangley returned to Los Angeles in 1975 with determination and a strong belief that he belonged in show business. Like many before him, he found that success wasn't easy. He studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, taking classes in voice, speech, movement, and acting, while working different jobs to support himself.
One of those jobs was as a doorman at the Pacific Pantages Theatre, which had hosted the Academy Awards from 1949 to 1960. For someone who loved Hollywood history, it was the perfect place to work.
His first screen work was as an extra and bit player in Universal Pictures' 1977 thriller Rollercoaster. The part was small, but it started a steady career in front of the camera. Bangley knew early on he probably wouldn't be a leading man, but he threw himself into character roles. "Let's face it," he once said, "I consider myself a character actor. That's what I'm going to be."
At the age of ten, Jimmy poses with a CBS color camera test card while modeling for his father, who worked at the local CBS television affiliate in Virginia.
A teenage Jimmy Bangley in his hometown of Suffolk, Virginia, years before following his dream of moving to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor, writer, and film historian.
Jimmy with Charles Goodman, director of the Student Cooperative Association at Suffolk High School, shortly after Jimmy was elected the organization's vice president.
Comedy was another big part of his life. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he regularly performed at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard and the Improvisation Café on Melrose Avenue. His impressions of stars like Bette Davis and Elvis Presley were crowd favorites, though he often said he couldn't tell from the stage if they really worked. "It's so different when you're up there," he explained. "You really can't judge how you're doing."
Even though he did well in comedy, Bangley's true love was theater. In the 1980s, he became a regular on Los Angeles stages, acting in plays like Shakespeare's Sir John Oldcastle, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and King Edward III, often playing more than one character in a show. He loved the challenge of becoming different people and thought it was more rewarding than trying to be a leading man. Later, he acted in the cult favorite Bob's Office Party and, in his last year, Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People.
Bangley never gave up on acting for the screen. Over the years, he built up film and television credits, appearing in more than 100 television shows as both an actor and a film historian. His biggest film role was in 2001, when he acted alongside Faye Dunaway, James Coburn, Brenda Blethyn, Cynthia Watros, and Natalie Canerday in The Yellow Bird, which Dunaway directed based on a Tennessee Williams story. He was also cast in Dunaway's planned adaptation of Master Class, but sadly, he never got to play that part.
How Bangley met Dunaway became one of his favorite Hollywood stories. One day, while walking in his West Hollywood neighborhood near Spaulding Avenue and Willoughby Avenue, he saw a woman struggling with a heavy box on her porch. He offered to help, and was surprised when she introduced herself as Faye Dunaway, the Academy Award winner. That simple act of kindness turned into a lasting friendship. Dunaway admired his intelligence, humor, and deep knowledge of classic films, and later invited him to appear in The Yellow Bird. Bangley often said their friendship was one of the great joys of his life.
Above: Faye Dunaway and Jimmy Bangley share a moment between takes on the set of The Yellow Bird (2001). Below: Dunaway and Bangley are joined by their co-star Natalie Canerday (left) during the film's production.
Jimmy poses with comedian Roseanne Barr at the Comedy Store during the early years of her career, before she achieved television stardom with her hit sitcom Roseanne.
Jimmy shares a booth with his friend, actress Sally Kirkland, at the Silver Spoon restaurant, where Jimmy regularly met with actors, and other friends from Hollywood.
Jimmy is with his good friend, actress Marsha Hunt, proudly holding a copy of Classic Images magazine featuring the article he wrote about the legendary actress.
Even though acting was his job, Bangley became more and more dedicated to remembering Hollywood history. By the mid 1990s, he was a respected film historian, researcher, writer, and photo archivist at the Writers Guild Foundation in Los Angeles. He used to joke that every dollar he made came from "writing, researching, being a film historian, or acting." He researched silent films, wrote about classic Hollywood, narrated television segments about historic Hollywood homes, consulted on many history projects, and often appeared on television to talk about movie memorabilia, costumes, and film history. People often turned to him for help, knowing that if anyone could identify a forgotten actor, find a rare photo, or solve a Hollywood mystery, Jimmy probably already knew the answer.
It was through his passion for silent screen legend Barbara La Marr that our own friendship began. I first met Jimmy in June 1996 while volunteering at the Hollywood Studio Museum during preparations for an exhibition celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of Barbara La Marr's birth. Knowing La Marr's son, Donald Gallery, I telephoned him, hoping he might loan a few family treasures for display. Without hesitation, he replied, "You need to talk to Jimmy Bangley."
Jimmy, author and film historian Margaret Burke, and Donald Gallery, son of silent screen star Barbara La Marr, examine a selection of rare photographs from Jimmy's extensive Barbara La Marr collection.
Jimmy Bangley was an occasional speaker at the annual Rudolph Valentino Memorial Service, where he shared his extensive knowledge of the silent screen legend with fellow admirers and film historians.
Jimmy and I met for lunch at his favorite spot, the Silver Spoon on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. We got along right away. He kindly lent the museum an amazing collection of Barbara La Marr memorabilia, including rare photos, original lobby cards, and even La Marr's handbag, which helped make the exhibition one of the museum's best. This showed Jimmy's generous spirit. He never saw himself as just a collector. He believed Hollywood history belonged to everyone and was happiest when he could share it.
Silver Spoon was more than just a local restaurant. It became Jimmy's unofficial headquarters, where filmmakers, actors, historians, and writers often gathered. Thanks to Jimmy, I met an amazing group of friends, including Sally Kirkland, Shelley Winters, Robert Forster, and Rip Taylor. Later, he also became friends with actress Marsha Hunt, author Cari Beauchamp, and former Academy president Fay Kanin. Jimmy had a real talent for bringing people together. Lunch conversations would move from silent films and forgotten stars to Broadway, television, and the latest Hollywood gossip, with Jimmy usually acting as the historian who could explain every story.
Perhaps his most ambitious historical project was a full-length biography of silent screen star Barbara La Marr. For years, he painstakingly gathered interviews, photographs, documents, and family recollections, hoping to produce the definitive study of the actress whose extraordinary beauty and tragic life had fascinated him since childhood.
Those who followed his research believed the book would have become an important contribution to silent film scholarship. Sadly, it remained unfinished.
Even though he made his home in West Hollywood, Jimmy never forgot Suffolk. Local newspapers proudly covered his career, from his stage and comedy work to his projects with Faye Dunaway and his reputation as a Hollywood historian. Friends back home admired not just what he achieved, but his determination. As Bangley often said, "I know I'll get a part. I may hear 'no' twenty times in a row, but the next time I step into that theater, I may hear 'yes.'"
On December 10, 2004, Jimmy Bangley was found dead at his home in West Hollywood after a short illness and a heart attack. He was only forty-eight. His death shocked friends in both Hollywood and Virginia. By then, he had acted in dozens of stage shows, ten movies, and over a hundred television programs, and was known as one of Hollywood's most respected independent film historians. His passing also meant his Barbara La Marr biography and his chance to appear in Dunaway's Master Class would never happen.
Jimmy's funeral was held on December 18, 2004, at Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church in Suffolk, Virginia. He was buried next to his beloved grandmother in Cedar Hill Cemetery, returning to the hometown where his dreams first started.
Jimmy Bangley visits the final resting place of his favorite actress, Bette Davis, whose remarkable career and enduring legacy inspired his lifelong love of classic Hollywood.
Although Jimmy was buried in his hometown of Suffolk, Virginia, his Hollywood friends gathered one last time to honor him. On January 8, 2005, a memorial was held at the Chapel of the Psalms at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, packed with friends, colleagues, and fellow film historians. Many shared touching stories about Jimmy's generosity, humor, and passion for acting and preserving Hollywood's history. Following the service, everyone gathered at the Silver Spoon for a wake, where we filled the restaurant as friends shared memories of Jimmy. We then raised money to buy a cenotaph niche in the Valentino Shrine at Hollywood Forever, creating a permanent spot in the city he loved where people can pay their respects.
Jimmy is buried in the Bangley family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suffolk, Virginia, where he was laid to rest in the community that nurtured his lifelong dream of a career in Hollywood. (Photo courtesy of James Shippey.)
Jimmy Bangley, who would have celebrated his seventieth birthday tomorrow, never measured success by fame. He was an actor who loved becoming different people, a comedian who enjoyed making people laugh, and a historian who wanted to keep the memories of others alive. He had a rare gift for celebrating Hollywood's past while still chasing his own dreams. Looking back, it's fitting that he lived in both worlds: the performer making stories and the historian making sure others weren't forgotten. His own story deserves to be remembered too.
Jimmy's cenotaph niche in the Valentino Shrine of Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Cathedral Mausoleum was purchased through donations from his many friends, giving them a permanent place to honor and remember him in the city he loved.
What you've read here is only a glimpse into Jimmy Bangley's extraordinary life. The full story is far richer, filled with remarkable adventures, unforgettable friendships, and encounters with some of the most fascinating personalities of his time—far more than could ever fit within the pages of a single article.
Over the years, Jimmy formed lasting friendships. Pictured here are just a few of the Hollywood people whose lives he touched through his warmth and generosity.
🎬 Check back this Sunday for my latest film review! I'll be taking a look at a new release, exploring whether it's worth your time. I hope you'll stop by, read the review, and share your own thoughts in the comments!
If you enjoyed learning about the life and legacy of actor, writer, and film historian Jimmy Bangley, please take a moment to leave a comment, rate the article, and share it with fellow lovers of classic Hollywood, and also share any memories you may have of Jimmy—your support helps keep these forgotten stories alive.
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