James Needs was born on 17 October 1919, in Holborn, London.
Hammer’s most credited crew member, a veteran of 112 separate productions, James gained his first editing job at Islington Studio in 1935, then to Shepherd’s Bush as assembly cutter. He bacame the editor there by 1948, before joining Hammer Studios the following year. From 1958 to 1969, he was supervising editor at Hammer.
James was married twice firstly to Wynifred Rose Makin, from 1940 until her death in 1978, and then to Mona Reilly from 1984 until his death in 2003
James Needs died in Ynys Mon, Anglesey, Wales, UK in 2003, he was 83.