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James Thomas Byrnes was born on September 22, 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is considered to be a very talented Blues musician, guitarist, and actor. He was in a car accident (i.e., he was hit by a passing car while he helped a friend to move a stalled truck) on February 26, 1972, where he lost both his legs, but he is currently still playing his music and acting. It was 15 years to the day after this accident (February 26, 1987) that he got his role on Wiseguy.
Jim Byrnes's first big television roll was on Wiseguy as Lifeguard a.k.a. Daniel Benjamin Burroughs from 1987 to 1990, and later on starred on the hit science fiction tv series Highlander as Joe Dawson, a member of a secret society known as "Watchers". Later he reprised his roll as Joe Dawson in Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source, the 5th installment of the "Highlander" film series. He also starred in his own short-lived TV show, called The Jim Byrnes Show.
His other television rolls include Higher Ground, he did cartoon voices in Beast Wars: Transformers, Shadow Raiders, Stargate Infinity, and X-Men: Evolution. He also appeared in the mini series on the Sci-Fi Channel called Taken.
Jim Byrnes is currently living in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.