James Best
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1926-07-26
Day of Death
2015-04-06 (88 years old)
Place of Birth
Powderly, Kentucky, USA
James Best
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Best (born Jewel Franklin Guy; July 26, 1926 – April 6, 2015) was an American television, film, character, voice, and stage actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor, and musician, whose career spanned seven decades of television. He appeared as a guest on various country music and talk shows.
One of the busiest actors in Hollywood, who began his contract career with Universal Studios in 1949, where he met unfamiliar actors Julie Adams, Piper Laurie, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson. Best's long career began in films in 1950. He appeared primarily in Westerns, playing opposite Audie Murphy in Kansas Raiders (1950), The Cimarron Kid (1952) and The Quick Gun (1964), Raymond Massey in Seven Angry Men (1955), George Montgomery in Last of the Badman (1957), Frank Lovejoy in Cole Younger Gunfighter (1958), and Randolph Scott in Ride Lonesome (1959). He also starred in the science fiction cult movie, The Killer Shrews (1959) and its sequel, Return of the Killer Shrews (2012). He is most known for playing bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the action/comedy Dukes of Hazzard, a role that he revised in The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! (1997) as his character was now "boss" of Hazzard County as well as sheriff, and again in The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000).
Known For
Acting
(2021)
(2013)
The Sweeter Side of Life
as Paddy Kerrigan
(2013)
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
as Self (archive footage)
(2012)
Return of the Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
(2007)
Moondance Alexander
as McClancy
(2006)
Hot Tamale
as Hank Larson
(2002)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
as Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
(2000)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
as Rosco P. Coltrane
(1998)
Death Mask
as Wilbur Johnson
(1997)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
(1978)
Hooper
as Cully
(1978)
The End
as Pacemaker Patient
(1977)
Rolling Thunder
as Texan
(1976)
Ode to Billy Joe
as Dewey Barksdale
(1976)
Nickelodeon
as Jim
(1976)
The Savage Bees
as Pellegrino
(1975)
The Runaway Barge
as Bingo Washington
(1974)
Savages
as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
(1972)
The Brain Machine
as Rev. Emory Neill
(1972)
Sounder
as Sheriff Charlie Young
(1970)
Run, Simon, Run
as Henry Burroughs
(1968)
Firecreek
as Drew
(1967)
First to Fight
as Sergeant Carnavan
(1966)
Three on a Couch
as Dr. Ben Mizer
(1965)
Shenandoah
as Carter, Rebel Soldier
(1965)
Black Spurs
as Ralph Elkins
(1964)
The Quick Gun
as Scotty Wade
(1963)
Shock Corridor
as Stuart
(1962)
Black Gold
as Jericho Larkin
(1960)
Aftermath
as Hardy Coulter
(1960)
The Mountain Road
as Niergaard
(1959)
Cast a Long Shadow
as Sam Mullen
(1959)
The Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
(1959)
Ride Lonesome
as Billy John
(1959)
Verboten!
as Sgt. David Brent
(1958)
The Left Handed Gun
as Tom Folliard
(1958)
The Naked and the Dead
as Rhidges
(1958)
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
as Kit Caswell
(1957)
Hot Summer Night
as Kermit
(1957)
Last of the Badmen
as Ted Hamilton
(1957)
Man on the Prowl
as Doug Gerhardt
(1956)
Calling Homicide
as Det. Arnie Arnhoff
(1956)
Come Next Spring
as Bill Jackson
(1956)
Forbidden Planet
as Crewman (uncredited)
(1956)
The Rack
as Millard Chilson Cassidy
(1956)
Gaby
as Jim
(1955)
Seven Angry Men
as Jason Brown
(1955)
Top of the World
as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
(1954)
Riders to the Stars
as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
(1954)
The Raid
as Lt. Robinson
(1954)
The Yellow Tomahawk
as Private Bliss
(1954)
The Caine Mutiny
as Lt. JG Jorgensen
(1954)
Return from the Sea
as Barr
(1954)
They Rode West
as Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
(1953)
City of Bad Men
as Deputy Gig (uncredited)
(1953)
Seminole
as Corp. Gerad
(1953)
Column South
as Primrose
(1953)
(1952)
The Cimarron Kid
as Bitter Creek Dalton
(1952)
Steel Town
as Joe Rakich
(1952)
Francis Goes to West Point
as Corporal Ransom
(1952)
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
as Marvin Johnson
(1952)
The Battle at Apache Pass
as Cpl. Hassett
(1951)
Apache Drums
as Bert Keon
(1951)
Air Cadet
as Jerry Connell
(1951)
Target Unknown
as Sgt. Ralph Phelps
(1950)
One Way Street
as Driver (uncredited)
(1950)
Winchester '73
as Crater
(1950)
Kansas Raiders
as Cole Younger
(1950)
Peggy
as Frank Addison
(1950)
Comanche Territory
as Sam
(1950)
Crew
(2012)
(1998)
Death Mask
Writer
(1978)
The End
Associate Producer
(1978)
Hooper
Co-Writer
(1976)
Gator
Production Assistant