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).
Acting
(2021)
(2013)
The Sweeter Side of Life
as Paddy Kerrigan
(2012)
Return of the Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
(2007)
Moondance Alexander
as McClancy
(2006)
Hot Tamale
as Hank Larson
(2004)
The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made
as Thorne Sherman (archive footage)
(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)
Nickelodeon
as Jim
(1976)
The Savage Bees
as Pellegrino
(1976)
Ode to Billy Joe
as Dewey Barksdale
(1975)
The Runaway Barge
as Bingo Washington
(1974)
Savages
as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
(1972)
Sounder
as Sheriff Charlie Young
(1972)
The Brain Machine
as Rev. Emory Neill
(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)
The Mountain Road
as Niergaard
(1960)
Aftermath
as Hardy Coulter
(1959)
Ride Lonesome
as Billy John
(1959)
The Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
(1959)
Verboten!
as Sgt. David Brent
(1959)
Cast a Long Shadow
as Sam Mullen
(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)
Forbidden Planet
as Crewman (uncredited)
(1956)
The Rack
as Millard Chilson Cassidy
(1956)
Gaby
as Jim
(1956)
Come Next Spring
as Bill Jackson
(1956)
Calling Homicide
as Det. Arnie Arnhoff
(1955)
Top of the World
as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
(1955)
Seven Angry Men
as Jason Brown
(1954)
The Caine Mutiny
as Lt. JG Jorgensen
(1954)
The Raid
as Lt. Robinson
(1954)
They Rode West
as Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
(1954)
Riders to the Stars
as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
(1954)
Return from the Sea
as Barr
(1954)
The Yellow Tomahawk
as Private Bliss
(1953)
Seminole
as Corp. Gerad
(1953)
Column South
as Primrose
(1953)
City of Bad Men
as Deputy Gig (uncredited)
(1953)
(1952)
Steel Town
as Joe Rakich
(1952)
The Battle at Apache Pass
as Cpl. Hassett
(1952)
Francis Goes to West Point
as Cpl. Ransom
(1952)
The Cimarron Kid
as Bitter Creek Dalton
(1952)
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
as Marvin Johnson
(1951)
Apache Drums
as Bert Keon
(1951)
Target Unknown
as Sgt. Ralph Phelps
(1951)
Air Cadet
as Jerry Connell
(1950)
Winchester '73
as Crater
(1950)
Comanche Territory
as Sam
(1950)
Peggy
as Frank Addison
(1950)
Kansas Raiders
as Cole Younger
(1950)
(1950)
One Way Street
as Driver (uncredited)
Crew
(2012)
(1998)
Death Mask
Writer
(1978)
The End
Associate Producer
(1978)
Hooper
Co-Writer
(1976)
Gator
Production Assistant