Anecdotes

His unit in F Troop (1965) was F Troop, 6th Cavalry. Before appearing on "F Troop", Hampton had been in the army, stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky. His unit was F Troop, 6th Armored Cavalry.

His brother Daniel Hampton was a rodeo clown.

His parents were Ivan and Edna Hampton, owners of a Dallas, Texas, dry cleaning store.

Some have claimed that his character in F Troop (1965) Bugler Hannibal Dobbs, should not have been a part of the unit, since after the war ended, most Southern white males were ineligible for service in the United States Army. However, Dobbs could have been one of the Southerners who remained loyal to the United States and joined the Union Army--Texas had a rather large contingent of them, one of them being cavalry General John Buford, who helped win the battle of Gettysburg. Also, since the South was pretty much devastated after the war, many ex-rebels returned home to find no jobs available, so they traveled west and enlisted in the army under a fake name. This often resulted in the somewhat odd situation of men who had been majors, lieutenant colonels and full colonels in the Confederate Army serving as privates, corporals and sergeants in the United States Army.

In the mid-1980s, an urban legend began in the central Eastern area suggesting that Hampton was the actor who replaced Willard Scott as the McDonald's mascot, Ronald McDonald. Hampton himself has stated that it is untrue.

Had three children, James Hampton Jr., Andrea Hampton and Frank Hampton, and three grandchildren.

James Wade Hampton passed away on April 7, 2021, three months away from what would have been his 85th birthday on July 9.

He appeared with Burt Reynolds on three episodes of Gunsmoke (1955) in 1963-65, he also appeared in four of Reynolds' films: Le fantôme de Cat Dancing (1973), Plein la gueule (1974), W.W. Dixie (1975) and La cité des dangers (1975). He toured with Reynolds in the stage production of "Rainmaker", and he starred with Reynolds in "Tender Trap" at Arlington Park Theatre in Chicago. He also appeared on Burt Reynolds (2000), where he recounted several amusing anecdotes about carousing with Reynolds.

He is interred at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery in Dallas, Texas.

As well as starring on the TV series Evening Shade, he also wrote several episodes of the series.