James Mitchell originated the role of Palmer Cortlandt for All My Children in 1979, for which he has been honored with seven Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Mr. Mitchell played leading roles in a number of Broadway musicals, including Mack and Mabel, Carnival, Paint Your Wagon, Brigadoon and Bloomer Girl. He has appeared with the American Ballet Theater in New York, Europe and South America, and with the Agnes DeMille Dance Theater on tour throughout the United States.

Numerous film credits include That's Dancing, a retrospective of great dance numbers in movie musicals; The Turning Point, in which he played the artistic director; The Bandwagon with Fred Astaire, Oklahoma and Deep in My Heart with Cyd Charisse. He also danced with Miss Charisse in both her 1965 television special and in the Academy Awards Presentation program in 1966.

Mr. Mitchell played the role of Professor Hathaway on the daytime series Where the Heart Is from 1969 to 1973. He also appeared in the ABC primetime series, Charlie's Angels.

He has starred on tour in Funny Girl with Carol Lawrence, in The Threepenny Opera with Chita Rivera and in The King and I with Ann Blythe. Additionally, he served as assistant to the director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production of Annie Get Your Gun with Debbie Reynolds.

Mr. Mitchell has taught movement for actors to theater arts students, which he describes as "an exchange of the disciplines of dancing and acting." He has taught at Yale University and at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in fine arts.