Biography

James Swanton is best known for otherworldly characters. He fathered the Antichrist as both Satan in Apartment 7A (2024) and the Jackal in The First Omen (2024), as well as appearing as the Magician in Tarot (2024), the Ash Man in Stopmotion (2023), the Spirit in Host (2020) and the Creature in Frankenstein's Creature (2018). He also played the title roles in two BBC chillers: Lot No. 249 (2023), Mark Gatiss's Ghost Story for Christmas, and The Curse of the Ninth (2024) in the final series of Inside No. 9 (2014). As a stage actor, James has been closely associated with Dickens. He took his acclaimed one-man play "Sikes & Nancy" to the West End's Trafalgar Studios and annually performs "A Christmas Carol" (amongst other ghost stories) at London's Charles Dickens Museum.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

He won Outstanding Performing Artist in the 2018 York Culture Awards for three horror roles: Count Dracula in "Dracula", the Creature in Frankenstein's Creature (2018) and Lucifer in "The York Mystery Plays".

Kim Newman chose him as his Cult Hero of the Month in the August 2021 edition of Empire.

He contributed to Sight and Sound's 2022 Greatest Films of All Time poll. His selections were All About Eve (1950), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Innocents (1961), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Oliver Twist (1948), On the Town (1949), Sunrise (1927), Vampyr (1932) and Vertigo (1958).

He is a recurring guest on The Evolution of Horror with Mike Muncer. Classic horror films they have discussed so far include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), Häxan (1922), Freaks (1932), Vampyr (1932), The Old Dark House (1932), King Kong (1933), The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Village of the Damned (1960) and Theater of Blood (1973).

He was the recipient of the Dracula Society's 2023 Hamilton Deane Award for three different performances: Victor Carroon in the 70th anniversary production of "The Quatermass Experiment" (Alexandra Palace), his one-man renditions of "A Christmas Carol", "The Chimes" and "The Haunted Man" (Charles Dickens Museum) and the Mummy in Lot No. 249 (2023).