James Digby Wolfe was an English actor, screenwriter and university lecturer in dramatic writing.
Background
James Digby Wolfe was born in London, England to a father who was an international banker and a mother who was a Vogue magazine artist. His mother named him after a character in Beau Geste. When he was four, his father died after being hit by a golf ball and he was brought up by his mother in Felixstowe.
Career
He made his film debut in the 1948 film The Weaker Sex. He began writing and performing in comedy series in England in the 1950s. Together with Jimmy Wilson he wrote a revue, with music by John Pritchett and Norman Dannatt, for the Irving Theatre.
He appeared alongside Ronnie Corbett, Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey, in his own television show Wolfe at the Door before moving to Sydney, Australia in 1959, where he made frequent television appearances and was host of the variety shows Review "61 and Review "62.
At that time, his resident comedian was Dave Allen, who later became a household name in the United Kingdom and Australia. Wolfe returned to England for a while in the early 1960s and was a writer on the seminal television satirical review That Was The Week That Was.
He also taught screenwriting at University of Southern California in the MPW (Master of Professional Writing) program
He also wrote for John Denver, Shirley MacLaine, Cher and Jackie Mason, among others In 1976 he hosted two episodes of the Australian version of This Is Your Life.
Until 2004 Wolfe taught dramatic writing at the University of New Mexico, first as a visiting professor, then as the chair of the Robert Hartung Dramatic Writing Program in the Theatre and Dance Department.
He was awarded "Teacher of the Year" at that university in 2003. He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico on 3 May 2012, after a short battle with cancer.