Biography

James Nicholas was born in 1947. He was an actor, known for Crossfire Trail (2001), Dead Heat (2002) and Tom Stone (2002). He died on October 15, 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Slipped and fell 70 feet to his death while on a fishing trip at Lillooet fishing camp in Vancouver.

Native American actor and full blood Rock Cree who took a prime interest in his ancestry. He was also a video, multi-media artist and writer. His work includes, "Land, Relationship and Community," which was published by Presentation House Gallery. Recent videos include "To the living, the dead and those yet unborn," an intertextual dialogue between indigenous and non-indigenous people; in particular Cree with Taras Shevchenko and 19th Ukraine and Peuk Nepi Meeting Waterwoman. He worked in collaboration with his photographer wife, Sandra Semchuk (born 1948), who was born in Saskatchewan and is Ukrainian-Canadian. The couple collaborated with her father to create Old People, Animals and Indians (1994). This four-part installation shows images of the two men and a bear, using videotapes, text, photographs and silk-screened images.

He was originally from Nelson House, Manitoba. Nicholas relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia in the 1990s to pursue a career in both films and television.