James Sampson

aka James E.R. Sampson | James Edward Sampson

James Sampson was a familiar face in Italian exploitation films of the 1980s.  He never had big roles, being more the kind of actor who would pop up for thirty seconds before dropping out of the picture, but some of them were important: as Willy, for instance, in the succesful Stagefright, or the voodoo priest in Claudio Fragasso’s dismal After Death (Oltre la morte).

According to the imdb, he kicked off his career in Joe D’Amato’s La via della prostituzione, an erotic crime film from 1978.  He was relatively busy until the beginning of the 90s, when he disappeared from view at about the same time as much of the Italian cinema industry lost any kind of international focus whatsoever.  In 2003, however, he also seems to have re-appeared in Ricky Tognazzi’s Il papa buono, so he must have been lying low over the intervening decade.

Other biographical information is sketchy.  IMDB also has him listed as a singer / songwriter, and the fact that he was from the music industry is possibly given some credence by the fact that he played a ‘street musician’ in 2019 – Dopo la caduta di New York and a saxaphone player in Norman Jewison’s Only you (94).  There is a James Sampson who’s a soul singer (big in Denmark, apparently), but this looks to be a different, younger man.

• 1978. La via della prostituzione (uncredited, as Car mechanic)
• 1980. Paura nella città dei morti viventi aka “City of the Living Dead” (uncredited, as James McLuhan – séance member)
• 1983. 2019 – Dopo la caduta di New York aka “2019: After the Fall of New York”  (uncredited, as Black street musician)
• 1985. Blues metropolitano (as Solomon)
• 1987. Deliria aka “StageFright: Aquarius” (as Willy)
• 1988. Appuntamento a Liverpool
• 1988. After Death (Oltre la morte) aka “Zombie 4: After Death” (uncredited, as The Voodoo Priest)
• 1990. Terminator II aka “Shocking Dark” (as Third Soldier)
• 1990. Robot Jox (as Control Center Technician)
• 1991. Vacanze di Natale ’91
• 1992. “La piovra 6 – L’ ultimo segreto” TV mini-series
• 1992. Infelici e contenti
• 1994. Only You (as Saxophone Player)
• 2003. Il papa buono (TV) aka “The Good Pope: Pope John XXIII”