James Cromwell's one of those actors that people will know him from a variety of roles - the most recognisable of which is either the farmer from Babe or the police chief from L.A. Confidential.
You may also know him from his turns in The Green Mile, Star Trek: First Contact (he was also on the TV series as well), Eraser, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, and a bunch of peak television like Boardwalk Empire and Halt And Catch Fire. In other words, he's a well-known, respected and serious actor.
As it turns out, Cromwell is also pretty serious about climate change and the environment, and was one of six people arrested in 2015 for protesting the construction of a natural gas power plant and its harmful emissions in Wawayanda, New York. Cromwell and several others staged a sit-in protest in the middle of a busy highway to highlight the harmful emissions from the plant, arguing in court that it posed "an imminent threat to the local environment and would accelerate climate change."
Cromwell was arrested in 2015 and ordered in court by a judge to pay a $250 fine for obstruction of traffic, plus a $125 surcharge in court yesterday - which he point-blank refused to do so. The seventy-seven year old actor was then sentenced to a week in jail, and later said outside court that, "(if) we don’t stay together, nothing will change. Power to the people."
This isn't the first time Cromwell's had a run-in with the law. In the '70s, Cromwell was a member of the Committee to Defend the Panthers, a group set up to 13 members of the Black Panthers who were imprisoned on conspiracy charges. In 2015, Cromwell was thrown out of a hotel for heckling the same company involved with this latest issue as they were receiving a business award. Cromwell was also arrested in 2016 alongside fellow Star Trek actor JG Hertzler for protesting an underground gas facility, so going to jail for this - even though he's a septuagenarian - doesn't seem to bother him all that much.
Via recordonline.com / Variety
