Daly was an accomplished stage actor, starting out in 1946 as Gary Merrill's understudy in Born Yesterday. His starring roles on Broadway included Archibald MacLeish's Pulitzer Prize–winning J.B. and Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment.
He guest-starred on many television series, including Appointment with Adventure (two episodes), Breaking Point, Mission: Impossible ("Shock"), DuPont Cavalcade Theater ("One Day at a Time" 1955) portraying Bill Wilson the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, The Twilight Zone ("A Stop at Willoughby"), The Tenderfoot (1964) for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Road West (1966 episode "The Gunfighter"), Custer, Gunsmoke (1967 episode "The Favor"), Combat!, The Fugitive, The Virginian, and Twelve O'Clock High. He portrayed Mr. Flint (an apparently immortal human) in the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah" (1969).
In 1958, Daly signed a contract with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to do television commercials for Camel cigarettes. He served as the Camel representative for seven years, being flown by Reynolds throughout the United States to be filmed smoking a Camel cigarette at various locations.
Personal life
Two of Daly's children, Tyne Daly and Tim Daly, and his grandson, Sam Daly, are actors. Tyne appeared on Daly's TV series, Foreign Intrigue, as a child. She also played Jennifer Lochner, Paul Lochner's adult daughter, on Medical Center in the 1970 season one episode "Moment of Decision". The elder Daly and his daughter both guest-starred separately in the original Mission: Impossible TV series. Tim appeared as a child with his father in Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People. Daly had two other children: daughters Mary Glynn and Pegeen Michael.
According to his son Tim Daly, during an interview on CBS News Sunday Morning, James Daly came out to Tim as gay a decade after divorcing his wife Hope. His struggle to come to terms with his sexual orientation nearly put a rift between him and his family. As homosexuality was still considered a mental illness until the early 1970s, he and his wife tried and failed at "curing" him. After their divorce, Daly decided to limit his contact with his children out of fear that they would end up mentally ill themselves.
Death
Daly died on July 3, 1978, of heart failure in Nyack, New York, two years after Medical Center ended, and while he was preparing to star in the play Equus in Tarrytown, New York. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.
