James Duval

Duval in 2009, photo by Prphotos

Birth Name: James Edward Duval

Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

Date of Birth: September 10, 1972

Ethnicity:
*father – French, Irish, Native American
*mother – French-Vietnamese

James Duval is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles in Donnie Darko, Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, Nowhere, The Clown at Midnight, SLC Punk!, May, and Noirland, among other independent films, as well as the blockbuster Independence Day. He has also been credited as Jimmy Duval.

He has said:

My mother is French-Vietnamese from Saigon, and my father is American-Indian and Irish. And when I was going to elementary school in Redondo Beach, California, in the mid-’70s, at the time of the Tet Offensive, looking the way I looked…You know, everyone else was blond and I was considered a “dog eater,” or a nip, or a c—k. And if I wasn’t that I was “Tonto” or “Bruce Lee.” Coming from that, I always felt strange and disconnected. Even in junior high, when I was living more towards downtown L.A. and meeting African-American, Latino, Hispanic, and Asian kids, I still knew that I would never be full-blooded anything; my parents aren’t full-blooded anything.