James Thomas Byrnes was born on September 22, 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Blues musician, guitarist, and actor. On February 26, 1972, he was struck by a passing car while he attempted to help a friend move a stalled truck, which caused him to lose both his legs above the knee.

Fifteen years to the day after the accident, he started appearing on Wiseguy as "Lifeguard" (Daniel Benjamin Burroughs). It was his first major role and lasted until 1990. Later, he starred in the fantasy television series Highlander: The Series as Joe Dawson, a member of a secret society known as the "Watchers". He reprised his role as Joe Dawson in Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source, later installments of the Highlander film series, as well as providing voices for the anime Highlander: The Search for Vengeance. He also starred in his own short-lived TV show, called The Jim Byrnes Show.

His other television roles include Higher Ground and cartoon voices in Beast Wars: Transformers, Beast Machines: Transformers, Shadow Raiders, Stargate Infinity, and X-Men: Evolution. He also appeared in the Taken mini series, which broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel and an episode of Twilight Zone entitled "Harsh Mistress". Byrnes currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.

As a musician, Byrnes has twice won the Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year, for That River in 1996 and House of Refuge on Black Hen Music in 2007. He also received the Male Vocalist of the Year at the Toronto Blues Society's Maple Blues Awards in January 2007.

Jim Byrnes is a controversial Australian businessman, based in Sydney and specialising in property development and mortgage finance.

Byrnes served 18 months in jail starting in 1986 for malicious wounding and the supply of heroin. In 1992 he went bankrupt, owing A$8 million. In 1994 he assisted businessman Alan Bond in Bond's bankruptcy proceedings.

In 1998 Byrnes was disqualified by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) from the management of corporations in Australia, but he has continued to engage in business activities and allegedly accumulate unpaid debts.

Speculation continues over a fire at a house owned by Byrnes in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra in 1997. Two men, apparently employed by Byrnes at the time, were charged with arson. One, Max Gibson, died from a heroin overdose in 2001, and the other, Tony Vincent Jr, faced a trial which resulted in a hung jury. When Byrnes was disqualified by ASIC, Gibson had replaced him as director of his companies but was himself disqualified in 1999 due to a criminal record. In 2005 an inquest into Gibson's death heard allegations that Gibson had been murdered by underworld figures. In April 2006 Byrnes appeared at the inquest.

In recent times, Byrnes has attempted to act as a funder of commercial litigation. These attempts do not appear to have had much success as is evident by at least one judgment of the Supreme Court of NSW (see Bauhaus Pyrmont Pty Limited (in liq) [2006] NSWSC 543 per Mr Justice Austin). Indeed in that judgment, the Court notes that Mr Byrnes made demands for monetary payment by raising suggestions that involved threats of physical harm (judgment paragraph 78).

In September 2006, it was reported that Byrnes' Sydney auction business "Cromwells" located in Pyrmont was placed in administration.

Born on September 22, 1948, Jim Byrnes grew up in St. Louis, the middle child of a middle class family. He learned to play blues guitar at age 13-- and continues to play on his favorite guitar, a Gibson 1969 Hummingbird. An eclectic individual, he studied for the priest hood in a seminary, and was even a professional shepherd at one point. He studied acting at Boston University and St.Louis University. Byrnes is a gifted actor and an inspiring individual. He lost both his legs in an automobile accident Feb. 26, 1972-- the same day he landed his pivotal "Wiseguy" role as Lifeguard fifteen years later.