James Clayton

James Clayton (born August 13th, 1949, died December 29th, 2014) was a Canadian film producer, actor, and singer best known for being the director of Greeny Phatom until his death in 2014.
== History ==
=== Early life ===
James Clayton was born at Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on August 13th, 1949, to Nick Clayton (of Russian, French, and Persian descent) and Sally Clayton (of Norwegian, Irish and German descent). James's maternal grandfather was a walk-in on various TV shows (mainly on shows produced for the CTV television network), and his maternal grandmother was an newspaper editor working in Denmark, Wisconsin, United States.
James attended J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School in the district of Scarborough. His teacher described Clayton as an intelligent young man and had proper motor skills, but was extremely disruptive and would shout the phrase "Have a shippy shippy shippy day!" (which was later used as Santed Sailor's catchphrase) all the time.
=== Adult life ===
James got his start in the Canadian television industry while working at CTV, 
In the 1970s, Clayton got a record deal with CBS Music to have Clayton's albums and music be released by CBS Music, and during the 1970s and 1980s, Clayton's music became very popular in Canada,. 
James began working for Owl Communications in 1992. James was often a walk-in role player on The Big Comfy Couch and was the uncredited co-executive producer of said show.
In 1993, James met Robert Stainton while on vacation in New York. James and Owl Communications were given a contract in order to help produce the upcoming Greeny Phatom. Owl Communications only produced 6 seasons.
During the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s, James briefly worked at ATI as a technician, during this time James helped make the "Hollywood" and the "Xenos" GPU's that were used in the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 respectively.
In 2000, James moved to a building on the border between Niagara Falls and Toronto. James was infamous for stealing confiscated Kinder Surprise Eggs from border control. One time, as a officer confiscated the eggs, James grabbed the eggs out of the officer's hands and took them to his house. No charges were pressed against James.
James raced for BMC Racing Team in the 2013 and 2014 Tour de France races, but left halfway through the 2014 race in order to focus on his television work. His bicycle is on display at his ashes' area of Cataraqui Cemetery.
=== Death ===
James died on December 29th, 2014, in Hollywood, California, United States, after a car accident. He was 65 years old. James and Little Girl's voice actor Katie Belshaw were passengers in a taxi traveling on a road between Little Saigon and Los Angeles. They were returning late at night from a night on the town when the taxi driver lost control. The taxi swerved violently across the road before hitting the roadside rock face and flipping several times before hitting the safety rail and plunging over the bank.
The taxi driver, whose name can't be displayed for legal reasons, who has claimed that he was not wearing a seatbelt in a interview, survived after being thrown out of the vehicle through a window before its final impact; having suffered catastrophic injuries, the driver is now rendered a quadriplegic. It is thus unknown whether Clayton or the driver were wearing seat-belts. Belshaw survived the accident unharmed due to bailing out as the car starting swerving; however, Clayton died before reaching the hospital, due to the injuries he had sustained. Clayton's body was cremated a year later, on April 6th, 2015, and his ashes are interred at Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. All the voice actors and production crews of Greeny Phatom and the shows he worked on attended the funeral and memorial service to pay respect to their fallen friend and co-worker. The Greeny Phatom episode "Return to 123 Greeny Phatom" and the rest of Season 20 of Greeny Phatom, the US and Canadian broadcasts of the 2015 Tour de France, reruns of The Big Comfy Couch, James's posthumously released album JCFX 3 and the Grojband episode "Here Us, Rock!" contained dedications to him.
== Discography ==
=== Albums ===
* Have a Shippy, Shippy, Shippy Day! (1973)
*Our World is Eternal (1975)
*A Typical Love Album (1977)
*Good Ol' Canada (1980)
*Animal Forest Story (1982)
*I Am Clayton, Hear Me Sing (1984)
*There's this Man named Jonathan (1986)
*Never Shall I Ever (1987)
*JCFX (1989)
*Grandfather on my Doorstep (1990)
*Technological Revolution (1992)
*A Nasty Cut (1993)
*Family House Eating (1995)
*Planet of No Home or Place (1997) (duet album with Robert Stainton)
*JCFX 2 (2000)
*Improvement (2002)
*Huge Comfortable Couch (2005)
*Where Thou is the Soup? (2007)
*
* Stranded on a Big Stomach (2008)
*Heaven Sent (2010)
*We Shall Amaze You (2011) (duet album with Crystal Stainton)
*Sailor (2012)
*Beach Park (2014)
*The Best Clayton Songs Volume 1 (2015) (posthumous release)
*The Best Clayton Songs Volume 2 (2016) (posthumous release)
*JCFX 3 (2020) (contains finished and unreleased songs made specifically for this album) (posthumous release)
*Clayton's Music Backlog (2022) (posthumous release)
== Filmography ==
=== Series ===
* Uncle Bobby (1968-1970) - singer
*Sesame Street Canada/Canadian Sesame Street (1972-1990) - actor, singer (various episodes)
* Puppet People (1973-1975) - actor
* Definition (1974-1989) - executive producer
* Kidstuff (1975-1976) - executive producer
*The Muppet Show (1979) - puppeteer (1 episode, uncredited)
* Snow Job (1983-1985) - executive producer
* OWL/TV (1992-1994) - producer
* The Big Comfy Couch (1992-1996, 2002-2006) - co-executive producer (uncredited), walk-in
* Greeny Phatom (1995-2014) - director, television producer, voice actor (seasons 1-20 only)
* Hello Mrs. Cherrywinkle (1996-1999) - executive producer
* Dr. Beanson (1996-2000) - director
*The Dr. Beanson Show (1997-1999) - director
*Greeny Phatom: The Xperience (1999-2002, 2010) - director, voice actor
=== Films ===
* Reason over Passion (1979) - co-producer
* Greeny Phatom: The Movie (2002) - director, voice actor
* 300 (film) (2006) - casting director
* Greeny Phatom: The Movie 2 (2013) - director
* Little Guy and the Mystery of New York (2013) - director
* Little Guy and the Mystery of Paris (2015) - director (posthumous release)
== Trivia ==
* James owned a 1966 Mustang Junior made by the Powercar company of Mystic, CT, USA. He bought it at a flea market in Ottawa for only $27. He restored it and later ran it around his hometown and in Chicago and Utica. His Mustang Junior is now owned by his daughter Erika Clayton.
* James adored potato pancakes (shallow-fried pancakes of grated or ground potato, flour and egg, often flavored with grated garlic or onion and seasoning). He had eaten all types of potato pancakes.
* James planned to make an animated series for FreshTV called "Jam Bikers", but he died before he could ever pitch it, his daughter Erika found an entire season's worth of scripts for the series when going through his belongings, as of 2019, Erika has stated that she is intrested in bringing the series to life.
Category:People
Category:Greeny Phatom Revived Wiki