Page 9 - Robeson Living Spring 2022

that important for me. It was something I just did. I always
found it kind of strange. There were roles you wanted to do
and a lot of roles you were glad you didn’t do.

When asked how he got into acting he replied it was totally
by accident. I was walkin’ down the street. The interviewer
interrupted asking if it was a car accident?

McEachin began laughing saying It wasn’t an accident. I
didn’t even have a car. No, I was walkin’ down the street and
a guy approached me. I was going up to see a friend of mine
by the name of Geordie Hormel, son of Hormel meats. He had
an office on Melrose Boulevard. I was going up to see him,
and this guy comes down the same side of the street and takes
a look at me and he asks, “Ain’t you an actor?” I said, “No.”
The guy said, “You want to be one?” I said, “No, no, out of my
league.” He said, “I wrote this script, this role, this guy looks
just like you. I’m going up to see the producer now we’re go-
ing to start shooting in a matter of a few weeks.” I said, “No,
that’s not for me.”

He says, “Why don’t we have a lunch, and we can talk about James McEachin
it?” Well, the guy was a little pushy and I said, “I’ll take the
lunch,” but if the guy tries something funny, I’m gonna pop sitting around the stove in their usual haunt, he finds the men he
him in the mouth—but I’m gonna eat first. seeks. The young man enters the ill-kept emporium and finds
the four old-timers gossiping and whittling. The very presence
He was so hyped up over this movie. So I took the script, and of a negro shocks them, but they don’t recognize Moses as a
I put it in the trunk of the car and I forgot about it. A couple former slave from a nearby plantation. Still bitter and angry
of weeks later I get a call asking, “You gonna do the movie?” over the Emancipation of the area’s slaves, these four very
My wife was in the kitchen, and I said, “Hey, Hon, there’s unreconstructed whites are in no mood to listen to anything a
some guy wantin’ me to be involved in a movie. Do you think colored person has to say, let alone one whose motives they
I should do it?” She said, “Well, you might as well. You’ve automatically, instinctively suspect.
bombed out on everything else you’ve ever done.” (laughs)
I said, “OK.” We went down to Bakersville, and we shot the With the help of some fine cognac Moses has brought along for
picture. It’s about some guy masquerading as a Klansman. the occasion, he lightens the spirits of these mean old codgers
with drink and the remarkable story he spins out over the next
McEachin is perhaps best known for his roles on Perry Mason, several hours, Moses tells them a tale of a young male slave, the
Matlock, Play Misty For Me, and his NBC series Tenafly. He boy’s white father who keeps a painful distance from the son he
appears in other films such as Every Which Way But Loose, refuses to acknowledge, the youth’s wise “uncle”-a proud and
Sudden Impact, The Brotherhood of the Bell, The Cable Car complex former slave named Ben-and the fire that destroyed his
Murder, and The D.A.: Conspiracy to Kill to name a few. former master’s plantation. It is a story rich in love and hope,
He was in numerous television appearances in Murder She but ultimately poisoned by the ruinous deeds of hateful men.
Wrote, I’ll Fly Away, and Diagnosis Murder.
In 2005 McEachin was appointed as a US Army Reserve Am-
McEachin has authored six novels and multiple screenplays. bassador and spends his free time speaking to soldiers, veter-
In his book Tell me a tale: a novel of the old south he brings ans, and America. In late 2006 he produced the film-short Old
the pain of slavery to life. After Emancipation, a young ex- Glory, a film short for the soldier, veteran, and patriot in us all.
slave journeys back to the community of his childhood and In 2008 McEachin opened his one-man play, Above the Call;
confronts four men with a story about the good old days of Beyond the Duty at the John F. Kennedy Center, Washington,
slavery. And when he finishes, none of their lives will ever DC and his since played Casa Manana, Ft. Worth, TX, Brent-
be the same. During the decade following the Civil War, the wood Theater, Los Angeles, CA, and Merle Reskin Theatre,
village of Red Springs, NC had not changed very much. It Chicago, IL.
is steeped in the socially rigid behavior of the old South, the
white South. A young black man named Moses has traveled Alabama’s Mobile Area Veteran’s Day Commission selected
many long miles to reach McMillan’s General Store. Here, McEachin as their 2013 Patriot of the Year for his continued

Robeson Living ~ Spring 2022 Page 9