Sidney "Sid" James, born Solomon Joel Cohen on 8th May 1913, Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa, was a character and comic actor born into a middle-class Jewish family in South Africa. Appearing in British movies from 1947, James was cast in many small and supporting roles into the '50s, his profile being raised as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour, first in the radio series then following it's adaptation for TV, running from 1954 to 1961.