He hunted in Africa, went to the Amazon rainforest, and traveled throughout Greece, Türkiye, Spain, England, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. Bedford was also one of the first people to drive the Alcan Highway to northwest Canada and Alaska.

In 1967, James was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer, the cancer had metastasized to his lungs and with the medical capabilities of that time, James had no choice but to accept the death sentence. Before that, James had read the idea in the book The Prospect of Immortality by Dr. Robert Ettinger – who is considered the father of body freezing experiments, founder of the Cryonics Institute – a unit specializing in providing body freezing services after death. Robert Nelson performed the first steps of cryonics on Professor James. He was injected with dimethyl sulfoxide after his death on the afternoon of January 12, 1967.

Previously, in April 1966