James Morrison

James Paige Morrison (born April 21, 1954; age 69) played Bill Buchanan on 24 between Season 4 and Season 7.

Biography

Morrison was born in Utah and moved to Alaska at an early age. He is married to Riad Galayini and they have one son, Seamus, born in 1999. He started acting with the Carson and Barnes Wild Animal Circus as a clown and wire walker.

Morrison is a writer, director, producer, poet and yoga instructor. He wrote and directed the short film Parking, which was popular in the film festivals it played in. The next year he and his wife wrote the short film Nude Descending. He then produced and starred in the short film Crossing.

He has also appeared in films like Jarhead with Dennis Haysbert, Jet Li's The One, and Catch Me If You Can with Frank John Hughes and Brian Goodman. He also had a small role in 1993's Falling Down with Karina Arroyave. He has had roles on TV series like the FOX military science-fiction series Space: Above and Beyond, Numb3rs with Peter MacNicol, NCIS with Alan Dale, Law & Order: LA and the late-night soap opera Revenge.

24 Day 4 Crew Pose- Morrison, Mary Lynn, Reiko, Haysbert and Surnow — On-set with Joel Surnow, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Dennis Haysbert and Reiko Aylesworth.

He has a published books of poetry and prose, Fog Slow To Clear, and a published play called Idle Wheels. Also, he worked as a lecturer for 4 years at Bournemouth University School of Media in England.

He is currently working on a documentary entitled Showing Up where actors are interviewed regarding the audition process of work. Actors featured in the documentary include Mary Lynn Rajskub, Janeane Garofalo and Stephen Spinella.

Role on 24

Unlike many other actors and actresses that have tried for 24, Morrison had only seen one episode prior to his casting. He almost missed the casting for the role of Bill Buchanan because he had plans to go to Hawaii with his family on that day. However, his manager urged him to do the casting and made some re-arrangements of the flight schedules to allow him to try for the role. The role was supposed to be a one-episode guest star but the writers decided to extend the role, which finally remained for four seasons.

During the filming of the episode when Bill Buchanan died, the cast and crew of the show gathered with cake at the White House set. "I spent a moment with them basking in their appreciation of what I felt like was sort of a family member leaving the fold," Morrison said. "It was the most familial set I'd been on."