Biography

Jim Chance (SAG-AFTRA) is an American actor whose feature film credits include: Swimmers (2005, Grand Jury Prize, Best New American Film, Seattle International Film Festival, and Humanitas Prize finalist at Sundance Film Festival) with Emmy & Tony Award winners Cherry Jones and Sarah Paulson; Riders (2000, Official Selection, Los Angeles Film Festival, Doug Sadler, director & Affonso Gonçalves, editor); Force of Circumstance, Liza Béar, director (1990, with Emmy Award winner Steve Buscemi, NY Museum of Modern Art's restoration series in 2023). Jim is prominently featured in several award winning live action shorts including Turkey, Interrupted (2024, Winner-Best Film, 48 Hour Film Project-DMV, Best Supporting Actor nominee), and Horses (2000, USA Film Festival). He also appeared in several low budget indie films including Lies the Radio Told Me (IFC) and a couple of wacky, teen horror films. Television credits include: All My Children (ABC); Guiding Light (CBS), As the World Turns (CBS); and Another World (NBC). New York theatre credits include (Off-Broadway): world premieres of The Red Rose at the Mint Theater (with Royal Shakespeare Company co-founder John Barton); Rescuers at the Hudson Guild Theater (and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Meyerhoff Theater in Washington, DC). Regional theater credits include: Malvolio in Twelfth Night at People's Light & Theatre Co. with Tony Award winner Frank Wood (as Orsino); Claude in the world premiere of An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre with Tony Award nominee Kurt Knudsen (as Victor); and the title role in The Merchant of Venice at Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre with Royal Shakespeare Company emeritus David Howey (as Shylock). Jim was one of four actors selected to work with Tony & Obie Award winner (and Juilliard playwriting co-chair) Christopher Durang, on new one-acts by Durang, David Ives, & John Augustine at the New Hope Theatre Festival, playing multiple roles including the Narrator in Durang's Nina in the Morning with Tony Award nominee Kevin Del Aguila (as Foote) and the title role in Ives's Degas, C'est Moi. Durang later invited Jim to audition for his Broadway production of "Sex and Longing" with Oscar winner Sigourney Weaver. Jim worked with Zelda Fichandler, Liviu Ciulei, and Garland Wright at Washington's Arena Stage. He won critical acclaim for performances as the title character in La Bête (Philadelphia), Nagg in Jackson Phippin's Endgame (Washington), Eddie in Fool for Love (San Francisco), Elwood Dowd in Harvey and the title role in Tartuffe (Annapolis), Tom in Peter Hackett's The Glass Menagerie (Washington), and multiple roles in Lawrence Hecht's acclaimed production of Metamorphosis at the MAGIC Theatre (San Francisco) and Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
- IMDb mini biography by: J. Chance