Bio
Jim Byrnes is an American blues musician, guitarist and actor best known for his role as as Joe Dawson, a member of a secret society known as the "Watchers", in the fantasy television series Highlander: The Series (1993-1998) and its subsequent movie spin-offs.
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.
He reprised his role as Joe Dawson in Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source, later instalments 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 mini-series Taken, which broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel, and an episode of Twilight Zone entitled "Harsh Mistress".
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.
Byrnes currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.