James Clayton



James Frankfurt Clayton (born August 13th, 1949, died December 29th, 2014) was an Canadian film producer, actor, and singer who is best known for being one of the producers of Team Fan until 2014, when he died.

Childhood
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!" all the time.

Adult Years
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 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.

In 2005, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "in recognition of the 2D computer animation revolution".

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.

More coming soon!

Death
James died on December 29th, 2014, in Hollywood, California, United States, after a car accident. He was 65 years old. James and Georgia Denney, 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. Denney 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 Team Fan and the shows he worked on attended the funeral and memorial service to pay respect to their fallen helper. The Team Fan 2014 special Alternative Objectverses contained a dedication to him.

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.