James Hagan (2 February 1954—14 July 2021) was a fine actor of stage and screen, and a highly regarded teacher of voice.
His great-grandfather, another James, was a hotelier in Fremantle in the 1890s.
Examples of his work:
showreel (youtube)
advertisements demo (voice)
excerpt from Foreshadow — film (vimeo)
Pokerface — complete short film (vimeo)
Quit campaign ads (youtube)
Curriculum Vitae - résumé
... and press photos
James's final performance was as 'Sir' in The Dresser, a production of the Melville Theatre Company.
The play is about a great actor - one of the knights of the theatre - giving his final performance: he dies in the last scene of the play - like James himself - from heart failure.
Although a professional actor, James was doing the gig gratis – as it was a part - he said - he was born to play. The central character is based on Sir Donald Wolfit - for whom the play's author, Ronald Harwood actually worked as dresser. The season was intended to be over eight nights and one matinee. The first two were cancelled due to pandemic restrictions, and the last three were cancelled due to James's death. His last appearance on stage was Sunday 11 July.
The banner photo (top) shows him in Red, for which he won the award of Best Actor from the Equity Guild of WA in 2013.
The central photo shows James on the red carpet before the screening of his film Little Sparrows (2010) at the Rome International Film Festival.
Garry Gillard | New: August, 2011 | Now: 18 December, 2022