It puts one in mind of the many wonderful hours at play which we all gleefully enjoy as children; where we become cops & robbers, cowboys & Indians, super heroes & villians. Perhaps wee James enjoyed playing the martyrs, the victims, the brave left on the battlefield? One wonders how often the ketchup went missing from the Frain family pantry? Then again, perhaps he didn't get to die often enough at play and is making up for it now?

Beginning with Prime Suspect 3 in 1993, he's died violently, or very nearly died, sometimes as villian, sometimes victim; on film, television, radio and stage. He's jumped off a building and survived in Prime Suspect 3 ; was shot to death in Nothing Personal , nearly drowns in Loch Ness and Vigo ; cuts his wrists in the tub in Tales From the Crypt ; meets classic Shakespearean ends in Macbeth , Othello and in King Lear ; is knifed in a bloody coup in Elizabeth ; dies of septicemia at the end of Vigo ; is taunted, stabbed to death and dumped in a hole in the beautiful Titus ; gets to die horribly -- twice, in Reindeer Games ; twice again in Arabian Nights - first in a dream sequence; then meets his demise in battle at the hands of his own brother; he dies a bloody and valiant death by crucifixion in Spartacus , and very nearly died in an unused scene in The Count of Monte Cristo .

Whatever the circumstances are, we recognize that he's awfully good at it. He's done it many times over and we hope that James Frain has many long, happy, healthy years ahead of him being bloodied, maimed and murdered.........only at play of course!

Please enjoy our homage to this particular skill of this skillfull actor.