Jim Mitchell (James Douglas Mitchell) was born at the Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. His father Douglas was originally a research engineer with Formica Corporation in Cincinnati-his mother Linda was a high-school English teacher. However, when Jim was six months old, his father decided he didn't want Jim growing up on the Cincinnati streets. Douglas then quit his Formica engineer's job. He built a homemade trailer, attached it to back of their family car (an old 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook coupe) loaded up their belongings and moved his family to Bartlesville, Oklahoma to go into the oil & gas producing/ranching/farming business with Jim's grandfather. (Orville Anderson Mitchell) As a result, from an early age Jim was either drilling new oil and gas wells (usually with antiquated "cable-tool" oilfield drilling rigs) "pulling" wells (doing well maintenance work on existing older wells) salvaging out oilfield equipment or buying/selling oil & gas properties. He also worked cattle, baled hay, did blacksmithing/welding, mechanic work and so on. When Jim wasn't doing that, he was working for his grandmother (Nora Vickers Mitchell-a well-known Bartlesville antique dealer) repairing/refinishing Victorian/Edwardian furniture. However, Jim always had Hollywood in his sights, as he had one great-uncle (Floyd Blackman) that had acted in two Hollywood silent films after his military service in "War One", but later worked mainly as a cameraman throughout the 1920's and '30's. In addition, the area where Jim had grown up had cranked out a lot of film stars, such as Tom Mix, Sid Jordan, Emmett Dalton (from "Dalton Gang" outlaw fame) Will Rogers, Ben Johnson, Clark Gable, Ed Harris and Gretchen Wyler. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Another great-uncle of his is William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. He is listed in the Cody Family Directory under his birth name of James Douglas Mitchell. His lineage is through William F. Cody's brother David Cody. His grandmother (Nora Grace Vickers Mitchell) was a 1st cousin to Jack Vickers (of Vickers Petroleum fame) in Wichita, Kansas. It was Jack Vickers and Nora who convinced Jim's grandfather Orville to go into the oil & gas producing business for himself. (Previously Orville had worked for Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma for many years.) In later years, Nora met actress Helen Hayes when they worked on a theatre restoration project in Wichita-they later bought & sold antique furniture together. One of the first jobs he had in grade school was working in a blacksmith shop on his neighbor's farm. The owner of the blacksmith shop was Grant Truman-a 1st cousin to U.S. President Harry S. Truman. For his extensive volunteer efforts assisting the Dalton Defenders Museum at Coffeyville, Kansas, he was granted the only existing "Lifetime Membership" status to this museum, as well as to the 1909 Brown Mansion Museum located nearby. Actress Gretchen Wyler was in his father's high-school class. (College-Hi School-class of 1950, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.) Attended Gretchen Wyler's parent's funerals with Gretchen and his father Douglas. Gretchen Wyler's parents are buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Bartlesville. His father's older brother Phillip (Phillip Vickers Mitchell) was a nuclear physicist. Obtained all three degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA., earning his Ph.D in 1960. Phillip was granted a George Westinghouse Scholarship when he graduated from College-Hi School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1946. All five of Phillip's children (Phillip Vernon, Joseph, Jay, Hannah and Kevin Mitchell-Jim's 1st cousins) obtained at least one degree from Carnegie-Mellon, which is still a school record. When Phillip was enrolled in grad school at Carnegie-Mellon, Rene Auberjonois and George A. Romero were working on their undergraduate degrees on campus. Was shot during a dove hunt at age 16 with a 12-guage shotgun-wounded in the right side of his face and neck. His family's lawyer in Bartlesville (Denzil D. Garrison) grew up in Norman, Oklahoma with actor James Garner. His favorite female star since childhood is actress Sherry Jackson, who is also one of his neighbors. Lived in the same apartment building as actress/singer Ryan Starr (of "American Idol" fame) and TV host Diem Brown. While helping friends, he was almost killed in an oilfield accident on a "pulling unit" (portable oilfield well serving rig) in June of 2000. The incident took place east of his hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma-on an oil lease called the "Dora Vann". Suffered a severe head wound. As of February, 2013 has been granted eight patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. His maternal grandfather (Robert Kimbel Kulp) became a metallurgist after graduating from Harvard and MIT. Robert worked on the "Manhattan Project" during "World War Two". In 1957, during her freshman year at Kansas University, his mother Linda and a friend were almost thrown out of a Lawrence, Kansas café after ordering a meal for being part Native-American. (His mother Linda is part Delaware Indian.) The café didn't serve African-Americans or Native-Americans, as segregation was still in effect at that time. Linda put up such a fight that she and her friend were allowed to stay. "Wilt the Stilt" Chamberlain was also a fellow K.U. classmate. While enrolled as an undergrad at Carnegie-Mellon University, his uncle (Phillip Vickers Mitchell) obtained his first job in Pittsburgh at radio station KDKA. The man who hired him was famed radio announcer Herb "oh, the humanity" Morrison of the Hindenburg disaster. Had a neighbor (Geneva King) die in his arms in the front seat of his car. The car was a blue, 1972 Cadillac Eldorado convertible which he later used to transport her body into Nowata, Oklahoma on back gravel roads. This incident happened five miles south of U.S. Highway 60 on the banks of "Curl Creek"-near the Nowata-Washington County line where he grew up. He later attended Geneva King's funeral at Memorial Park Cemetery at Nowata, Oklahoma. Her husband Garland "Dock" King died almost six months to the day later. They were married 50 years and had no children. His great-uncle (Dr. Joseph Shannon Baird) served in the Ambulance Corp in "War One". In later years, he worked closely with Dr. Jonas Salk on the polio vaccine. The location was in the basement of the old "Pittsburgh Municipal Hospital For Contagious Diseases" building-now "Jonas Salk Hall" on the University Of Pittsburgh campus. (Dr. Baird was the superintendent of the hospital at that time.). His deceased step-father (Donald Randolph) was a cousin to actor Doug McClure. Due to extreme alcoholism with several relatives and friends, has always been a life-long "teetotaler". Refuses to have alcohol in his house, or even eat foods cooked with it. Martha Baird Allen was born in 1895 and was a concert pianist-she was a 1st cousin to Jim's great-uncle Dr. Joseph Shannon Baird. Martha became a widow in 1950-her deceased husband Arthur Allen had been a lawyer and a former Brown University college classmate of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. In August of 1951, Martha became the new Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. She was married to John until he died in 1960. Had two sets of great-grandparents that participated in the 1889 "Oklahoma Land Run". John Miner Mitchell & Emma Catherine Sharp Mitchell were the parents of his grandfather. (Orville Anderson Mitchell) His other great-grandparents were Jacob Irving Vickers & Dora Mae Morehead Vickers-parents of his grandmother. (Nora Grace Vickers Mitchell) Both families had previously been living in Kansas. The first film job he acquired was when he bluffed his way onto Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks" film set as a Production Assistant-the location was a little Mennonite town called Burns, Kansas-completely surrounded by Kansas wheat fields. He stripped the Oklahoma license plate off a black 1975 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, replaced them with a set of expired California plates, loaded up extra clothes, food and supplies, put the top down and then headed for Burns. When he got there, he found a mob of reporters, news crews, fans and a lot of Kansas State Troopers-who's job it was to seal off the town's entrances during filming. However, when he pulled up, introduced himself and said he "was running late, but still needed to get into work"....To his surprise, the troopers saw that his motives were sincere and let him pass...He immediately parked the car and started working for Tim Burton as if he belonged there-didn't get caught by Security until noon the next day. Luckily, a beautiful and kind-hearted Assistant Director saved him from being thrown out of town and he got to continue working on the film. He spent his last day there assigned to Joe Don Baker, and was then invited to continue working with Burton's crew at Kingman, Arizona. During her grade school years, his mother Linda used to attend roller-skating parties with actress Pia Lindstrom-the first child of Ingrid Bergman. Both girls were attending "Ellis School For Girls" in Pittsburgh, PA. at that time. Dale Robertson once advised him against taking acting lessons. (Dale had been given the same advice many years before by Will Rogers, Jr.). Did his graduate work at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma-majored in Communications. (Tahlequah is the capitol of the Cherokee Indian Nation.) Carrie Underwood also attended "NSU"-received her undergraduate degree in Communications in 2006. His maternal grandparents (Francis Maurine Collins and Robert Kimbel Kulp) met on a blind date in 1931. Both were enrolled at University Of Pittsburgh at that time. The location where they actually met was in front of the "Cathedral Of Learning" building on campus. Maurine later became an "R.N." at the Pittsburgh Municipal Hosiptal. Robert became a metallurgist with Jessop Steel Corporation and later with Union Carbide in downtown Pittsburgh. No matter where he's physically located in the world, his watch is constantly set to "Tulsa Time". (Central Standard Time) This was a trait he acquired since the age of five. As a little kid, he frequently traveled by himself on trains, planes and buses, and although he wore a watch his grandfather had given him and would wind it each day, he didn't know how to mechanically change the time as needed for several years-and never bothered to ask. (His family would dress him in a suit as a child-then send him off to visit relatives and friends.) As a result, while traveling he studied world time zones-constantly comparing them against the "permanent" Tulsa time-zone on his watch, which he has always referred to as "Real Time".