James Martin Kelly

James Martin Kelly is an actor who started out as a musician, singing and playing guitar and drums on stage at age 11 after moving from Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood to Valley Stream on Long Island. In the 1980s he was a published songwriter and performer in New York recording studios and lower Manhattan clubs before relocating to Hudson, Florida, where he worked for the postal service and turned to community theater. A role as Beadle in Sweeny Todd for the Richey Suncoast Theater led to other stage roles, among them Alan Squire in The Petrified Forest, and to commercial auditions through Tampa agents. He left the post office to act full time, trained in the Eric Morris Technique at the Performers Studio, and went on to television work that included playing a mob boss on Walker, Texas Ranger and Big Frankie on Noah Knows Best. His film work included Animal Factory and Big Trouble.