Raised in Dallas, Texas, James Hampton attended John H. Reagan Elementary, N.R. Crozier Technical High School and the University of North Texas (Theatre Arts Major). He studied acting with Michael Howard in New York and Leonard Nimoy in Los Angeles. He worked with Baruch Lumet at Knox Street Theatre in Dallas and did summer stock at Casa Manana in Fort Worth (1961). He performed off-Broadway in "Easy Does It" with Tom Poston and Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, and toured with Burt Reynolds in "Rainmaker". He starred in "Tender Trap" with Reynolds at Arlington Park Theatre in Chicago and played the title role in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" at the same theatre with Mamie Van Doren and Rick Jason. Onscreen, he has played in films as diverse as Golpe bajo: El juego final (1974) and Travesuras de un lobo adolescente (1985), and is probably best remembered as the eager but inept bugler Private Hannibal Dobbs in the classic sitcom La tropa loca (1965). James Hampton died at age 84 of Parkinson's disease at his home in Fort Worth, Texas.