"I have enjoyed my work in the theatre. It is work, nevertheless, and all the preparation and study that is requisite to most professions is requisite to acting. Acting is a presentation of life, and life, like acting, has its complex nature. Bringing a character to life in a performance is much like giving birth to a person who never lived before. It is a great challenge." James MacArthur

James Gordon MacArthur was born 19 years ago. With one film, The Young Stranger, he has catapulted to the forefront of Hollywood’s young stars. The reviews of his first film were universally laudatory, and from the motion picture industry’s viewpoint it also made “socko” money to use one of Variety’s adjectives.

Walt Disney saw The Young Stranger and decided on the spot that he needed James MacArthur for the star lead in A Light in the Forest. Twentieth Century Fox and the other major studios had seen the film too. They also wanted James MacArthur. Disney won out, however, and Jim’s second film will be A Light in the Forest.

Now a freshman at Harvard College, Jim still has three years of college to go and is quite determined to finish it out. His plans are simply to give 75% of his life to college, and 25% during summer vacation to the movie world. In the meantime he is vice president and associate publisher of the youngest and fastest growing publishing house in America today, Filosa Publications. An actor with ink in his veins, Jim in this respect takes after his dad, the late Charles MacArthur, who besides being one of the top playwrights on the American scene, was acknowledged among the members of the publishing profession as one of the greatest newspapermen of all time.

Jim is presently occupied with his education and his other commitments. When some of them, like college, are over, he will be able to turn to the theatre with greater latitude of time. When that day arrives, there is little doubt that James MacArthur will be in the theatre, substantially and importantly, for many years to come.