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Not to be confused with the current British actor/director of (almost) the same name, James A. Marcus was a late-19th century stage actor who transferred his larger-than-life theatrical persona to films in 1915. Marcus spent the next two decades playing bombastic authority characters. His silent-screen roles ranged from Mr. Bumble in the 1922 version of Oliver Twist to the appropriately named Colonel Blood in Laurel & Hardy's 1927 two-reeler Duck Soup. At the time of his death at the age of 69, James A. Marcus was most frequently seen as sheriffs, mayors, land barons and "father to the heroine" in "B"-westerns.