James Grant Kahlo; Actor

James Grant Kahlo, who began his acting career in silent films and played a regular part in the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, has died at his Van Nuys home. He was 81.

For the past 20 years, Kahlo played a guild-master at the annual fair that moved last year from Agoura to the Glen Haven Regional Park in San Bernardino County.

He died July 9 of natural causes, said his sister, Margaret Kahlo.

Born April 16, 1909, in Los Angeles, Kahlo began his acting career at the age of 6. He appeared in dozens of films, in small parts and cameos, acting until the mid-1980s. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kahlo appeared in Shakespearean plays in Ashland, Ore., and in the past 20 years he played Father Christmas in the annual Dickens Faire in San Francisco. He last performed in the Renaissance and Dickens fairs in 1989.

Kahlo was a longtime member of the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.

He is survived by his sister, Margaret Kahlo of Van Nuys, and a brother, William Kahlo of Malibu. At his request, there will be no services. J.T. Oswald Mortuary in Reseda handled the arrangements.