生于麻省波士顿。他的父母托德和简都是老师。一开始，詹姆斯在麻省安德佛市的派克高中读书，但后来转到了菲利普学院。在11年级时从菲利普学院辍学并搬到纽约去尝试当一名演员。詹姆斯在80年代开始活跃在影视界，但他真正赖以成名的是扮演一些电影中的古怪角色，如《性，谎言和录像带》(Sex, Lies, and Videotape)，《星际之门》(Stargate)，及《风流老板俏秘书》(Secretary)。
She is currently engaged, as of 2008, to fellow actor James Spader of The Practice and Boston Legal. On August 31, 2008, she gave birth to her first child, a son by James Spader.
David Lemuel Keith was born on May 8, 1954 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Lemuel Grady Keith Jr. and Hilda Earle. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Theater. Keith had a supporting role in The Rose (1979) starring Bette Midler, had a supporting role in Brubaker (1980), and co-starred with Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). He played a local thug in The Great Santini (1979), starred in The Lords of Discipline (1983) and White of the Eye (1987), and held a prominent supporting role opposite Matthew McConaughey in U-571 (2000). He played opposite Drew Barrymore in the science fiction horror film Firestarter (1984), and opposite Brooke Shields and Martin Sheen in Running Wild (1995).
