Personal Info
Known For:
Acting
Birthday:
July 26, 1926
Place of Birth:
Powderly, Kentucky, USA
Social Media
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
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists! | Self |
| 2013 | The Sweeter Side of Life | Paddy Kerrigan |
| 2013 | Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia | Self (archive footage) |
| 2012 | Return of the Killer Shrews | Thorne Sherman |
| 2007 | Moondance Alexander | McClancy |
| 2006 | Hot Tamale | Hank Larson |
| 2004 | The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made | Thorne Sherman (archive footage) |
| 2002 | The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller | Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| 2000 | The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood | Rosco P. Coltrane |
| 1998 | Death Mask | Wilbur Johnson |
| 1997 | The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! | Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane |
| 1978 | Hooper | Cully |
| 1978 | The End | Pacemaker Patient |
| 1977 | Rolling Thunder | Texan |
| 1976 | Nickelodeon | Jim |
| 1976 | Ode to Billy Joe | Dewey Barksdale |
| 1976 | The Savage Bees | Pellegrino |
| 1975 | The Runaway Barge | Bingo Washington |
| 1974 | Savages | Sheriff Bert Hamilton |
| 1972 | The Brain Machine | Rev. Emory Neill |
| 1972 | Sounder | Sheriff Charlie Young |
| 1970 | Run, Simon, Run | Henry Burroughs |
| 1968 | Firecreek | Drew |
| 1967 | First to Fight | Sergeant Carnavan |
| 1966 | Three on a Couch | Dr. Ben Mizer |
| 1965 | Shenandoah | Carter, Rebel Soldier |
| 1965 | Black Spurs | Ralph Elkins |
| 1964 | The Quick Gun | Scotty Wade |
| 1963 | Shock Corridor | Stuart |
| 1962 | Black Gold | Jericho Larkin |
| 1960 | The Mountain Road | Niergaard |
| 1960 | Aftermath | Hardy Coulter |
| 1959 | Ride Lonesome | Billy John |
| 1959 | The Killer Shrews | Thorne Sherman |
| 1959 | Verboten! | Sgt. David Brent |
| 1959 | Cast a Long Shadow | Sam Mullen |
| 1958 | The Left Handed Gun | Tom Folliard |
| 1958 | The Naked and the Dead | Rhidges |
| 1958 | Cole Younger, Gunfighter | Kit Caswell |
| 1957 | Hot Summer Night | Kermit |
| 1957 | Man on the Prowl | Doug Gerhardt |
| 1957 | Last of the Badmen | Ted Hamilton |
| 1956 | Calling Homicide | Det. Arnie Arnhoff |
| 1956 | The Rack | Millard Chilson Cassidy |
| 1956 | Gaby | Jim |
| 1956 | Come Next Spring | Bill Jackson |
| 1956 | Forbidden Planet | Crewman (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Top of the World | Col. French's Orderly (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Seven Angry Men | Jason Brown |
| 1954 | The Raid | Lt. Robinson |
| 1954 | The Yellow Tomahawk | Private Bliss |
| 1954 | The Caine Mutiny | Lt. JG Jorgensen |
| 1954 | Return from the Sea | Barr |
| 1954 | Riders to the Stars | Dr. Sidney K. Fuller |
| 1954 | They Rode West | Lt. Finlay (uncredited) |
| 1953 | Seminole | Corp. Gerad |
| 1953 | City of Bad Men | Deputy Gig (uncredited) |
| 1953 | Column South | Primrose |
| 1953 | Skip Taylor | |
| 1952 | The Cimarron Kid | Bitter Creek Dalton |
| 1952 | The Battle at Apache Pass | Cpl. Hassett |
| 1952 | Francis Goes to West Point | Cpl. Ransom |
| 1952 | Steel Town | Joe Rakich |
| 1952 | Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair | Marvin Johnson |
| 1951 | Apache Drums | Bert Keon |
| 1951 | Target Unknown | Sgt. Ralph Phelps |
| 1951 | Air Cadet | Jerry Connell |
| 1950 | Winchester '73 | Crater |
| 1950 | Comanche Territory | Sam |
| 1950 | Kansas Raiders | Cole Younger |
| 1950 | I Was a Shoplifter | |
| 1950 | One Way Street | Driver (uncredited) |
| 1950 | Peggy | Frank Addison |