James McKenzie(VII)

James McKenzie was born in Newport, Fife, Scotland. During the 1980s he worked in the Philippines, where he had a very prolific career in B-movie actioners, many of them made for Silver Star Film Co. (called Kinavesa in the Philippines), produced by K.Y. Lim. He had small parts in a few Hollywood movies with such stars as Chuck Norris, Linda Blair, Chris Penn, George Takei and Jackie Chan. The Philippines was a popular location for low-budget films because the costs of production were lower than in many surrounding countries. It was especially attractive to producers of war pictures because of its similarity to Vietnam. For action pictures, Manila Bay often would stand in for Miami, as it has a similar look. Change the car number plates and add a few caucasian extras and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Miami. His acting career began when he was sitting in a bar in Manila when a member of a casting crew noticed him and asked James if he could 'fake' taking a punch. The casting guy threw a punch and James's reaction impressed them. He was asked to join the crew and so it started. Over the decade McKenzie appeared in countless Filipino features and some Italian productions that were shot in the country. His clean-cut looks meant he was often cast as a pilot, doctor or policeman. Over the years James worked with many of Hollywood's stars of the day.

He moved to Hong Kong in 1990, where he worked in many local productions before moving home to Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1997. The idea for his book, "The Mystery of Yamashita's Map", was conceived while working in the Far East. The novel was launched at the London Book Fair and went on to enjoy considerable success, especially in Japan where George Takei (Star Trek (1966), Heroes (2006)) featured it on his fan website. He later went on to appear on hit tv series' Myth Hunters' and was one of the narrators on an episode about Yamashita's treasure. He went on to write a young adult sci-fi novel called 'The Cloud' which was received with great acclaim by the sci-fi community and attracted film makers who were interested in buying 'film rights'