James D. Rolfe (July 10, 1980 - September 9, 2020) was an American YouTuber, online personality, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for creating and starring in the comedic retrogaming web series The Angry Video Game Nerd (2004–2020). His spin-off projects include reviews of other retro films, television series, and board games. He is considered a pioneer of internet gaming videos, and is noted for widespread influence on YouTube content after his series premiered on the site in 2006.
Rolfe began creating homemade video productions in the late 1980s, and had created more than 200 videos throughout his career. His career as an online celebrity took off in 2004 with the beginning of Angry Video Game Nerd. Two years later, Rolfe gained mainstream attention after one of his videos went viral upon being published on YouTube. In the interim, he filmed videos he created on his own and most of them have been released on his website, Cinemassacre.
Early life[]
Rolfe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 10, 1980. He was raised in south New Jersey. His parents bought him an audio recorder as a Christmas present sometime in the early to mid-1980s. Later, he got a camera and took photographs of him and his friends play fighting. He was inspired by The Legend of Zelda and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to create adventure stories. Rolfe also illustrated comic books, which he updated monthly. One such comic he created had a plot inspired by the video game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Rolfe started filming shorts in 1989 continuing this hobby into the mid 1990s. He used Mario Paint for a few of his early films. He eventually took classes for hand-drawn animation at a university.[which?] His early films did not have scripts or rehearsal. However, once he started writing scripts, his friends gradually lost interest because of the pressure of trying to remember their lines, which left many of Rolfe's films unfinished. He then tried his hand at action figures and puppets. The plot of The Giant Movie Director (1994) involved toys coming to life. Rolfe attended a special education school for seven-and-a-half years during his childhood. He reflected on his past, "In school, I had a rough time communicating. I went to special ed for seven-and-a-half years. I liked it, I had a good time. But socializing in general... I was a little awkward. Art always made me feel comfortable."
Rolfe attended the University of the Arts and has a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
Since his early teen years, Rolfe operated and ran an annual "haunted house" Halloween attraction out of his parents' garage (the same garage was later used in building a graveyard for his horror comedy film The Deader, the Better and again used in his film/series pilot Jersey Odysseys: Legend of the Blue Hole), using a collection of several props and antiques that he later reused multiple times in his other films.
Career[]
Personal life[]
Murder: September 9, 2020[]
At approximately (TBD) on September 9, 2020...(under progress)
April issued a statement the next day, saying "There is no funeral for James," ending it with the words, "James loved and prayed for the gamers. Please do the same for him."