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James Gordon MacArthur was born December 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California. Adopted as an infant by playwright Charles MacArthur and his wife, actress Helen Hayes, he grew up in Nyack, New York, and was educated at Allen Stevenson School in New York, and later at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he starred in basketball, football, and baseball. In his final year at Solebury he played guard on the football team, captained the basketball team, was elected president of his class as well as of the Student Government and the Drama Club, rewrote the school`s constitution, edited the school paper, The Scribe, and played Scrooge in a local presentation of A Christmas Carol.

His first radio role was on "Theatre Guild of the Air" in 1948. "The Theatre Guild of the Air" was the premiere radio program of its day, producing one-hour plays that were performed in front of a live audience of 800. Hayes accepted a role in one of the plays, which also had a small part for a child. Her son was asked if he would like to do it, and agreed. He made his stage debut at Olney, Maryland, in 1949, with a two-week stint in "The Corn Is Green." The following summer, he repeated the role at Dennis, Massachusetts, and his theatrical career was underway. In 1954, he played John Day in "Life With Father" with Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney. However, young James did not get a fast-track into important Broadway productions just for being Helen Hayes`s son. Instead, he received his training in summer stock.

In 1967, Leonard Freeman, the producer of Hang `Em High, produced the pilot for a new television cop show, "Hawaii Five-O." Before the pilot went to air, it was shown to a test audience. The show was well received, but the audience did not like the actor playing the role of Dan Williams. Freeman remembered the actor who had appeared as the traveling preacher in Hang `Em High, who came on the set, did the scene in one take and was gone. He was James MacArthur and Freeman offered him the role of Dan Williams. Hawaii Five-O became one of the most successful shows in television history, ran for twelve years. Leaving at the end of its eleventh season, Jim returned to the theater in "The Lunch Hour" with Cybill Shepherd. He appeared in "A Bedfull of Foreigners" in Chicago in 1984, and in Michigan in 1985. He followed this with "The Hasty Heart," before taking a year out of show business. In 1987, he returned to the stage in "The Foreigner," then played Mortimer in the national tour of "Arsenic and Old Lace" with `Jean Stapleton`, Marion Ross, and Larry Storch. In 1989, he followed another stint in "The Foreigner" with "Love Letters" and, in 1990 - 1991, "A Bedfull of Foreigners," this time in Las Vegas. Since leaving Hawaii Five-O , Jim has also guest-starred on such TV shows as "Murder, She Wrote" (1984), "Love Boat, The" (1977)_, "Fantasy Island" (1978), and "Vega$" (1978), as well as in the miniseries Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980) (TV) and The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1983) (TV).

He is still much in demand for television and radio specials and interview programs. His most recent appearances include spots on "Entertainment Tonight" (1981), "Christopher`s Closeup," and the British BBC 5 Radio obituary program "Brief Lives," in which he paid a moving tribute to late Hawaii Five-O cast mate Kam Fong. In April, 2003, Jim traveled to Honolulu for a brief return to the stage in a cameo role in Joe Moore`s play "Dirty Lau

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