James Best
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- July 26, 1926
- Died
- April 6, 2015
- Birthplace
- Powderly, Kentucky, USA
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).
Filmography
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists! 2021
as Self
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia 2013
as Self (archive footage)
The Sweeter Side of Life 2013
as Paddy Kerrigan
Return of the Killer Shrews 2012
as Thorne Sherman, Writer
Moondance Alexander 2007
as McClancy
Hot Tamale 2006
as Hank Larson
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller 2002
as Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood 2000
as Rosco P. Coltrane
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! 1997
as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
Death Mask 1995
as Wilbur Johnson, Writer
Hooper 1978
as Cully, Co-Writer
The End 1978
as Pacemaker Patient, Associate Producer
Rolling Thunder 1977
as Texan
The Savage Bees 1977
as Pellegrino
Nickelodeon 1976
as Jim
Gator 1976
Production Assistant
Ode to Billy Joe 1976
as Dewey Barksdale
The Runaway Barge 1975
as Bingo Washington
Savages 1974
as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
Sounder 1972
as Sheriff Charlie Young
The Brain Machine 1972
as Rev. Emory Neill
Run, Simon, Run 1970
as Henry Burroughs
Firecreek 1968
as Drew
First to Fight 1967
as Sergeant Carnavan
Three on a Couch 1966
as Dr. Ben Mizer
Shenandoah 1965
as Carter, Rebel Soldier
Black Spurs 1965
as Ralph Elkins
The Quick Gun 1964
as Scotty Wade
Shock Corridor 1963
as Stuart
Black Gold 1962
as Jericho Larkin
The Mountain Road 1960
as Niergaard
- Aftermath
Aftermath 1960
as Hardy Coulter
Cast a Long Shadow 1959
as Sam Mullen
The Killer Shrews 1959
as Thorne Sherman
Verboten! 1959
as Sgt. David Brent
Ride Lonesome 1959
as Billy John
The Naked and the Dead 1958
as Rhidges
The Left Handed Gun 1958
as Tom Folliard
Cole Younger, Gunfighter 1958
as Kit Caswell
Man on the Prowl 1957
as Doug Gerhardt
Last of the Badmen 1957
as Ted Hamilton
Hot Summer Night 1957
as Kermit
The Rack 1956
as Millard Chilson Cassidy
Calling Homicide 1956
as Det. Arnie Arnhoff
Gaby 1956
as Jim
Forbidden Planet 1956
as Crewman (uncredited)
Come Next Spring 1956
as Bill Jackson
Top of the World 1955
as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
Seven Angry Men 1955
as Jason Brown
They Rode West 1954
as Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
The Raid 1954
as Lt. Robinson
Return from the Sea 1954
as Barr
The Caine Mutiny 1954
as Lt. JG Jorgensen
The Yellow Tomahawk 1954
as Private Bliss
Riders to the Stars 1954
as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
Skip Taylor 1953
Actor
City of Bad Men 1953
as Deputy Gig (uncredited)
Column South 1953
as Primrose
Seminole 1953
as Corp. Gerad
Flat Top 1952
as Radio Operator
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair 1952
as Marvin Johnson
Francis Goes to West Point 1952
as Corporal Ransom
Steel Town 1952
as Joe Rakich
The Battle at Apache Pass 1952
as Cpl. Hassett
The Cimarron Kid 1952
as Bitter Creek Dalton
Apache Drums 1951
as Bert Keon
Air Cadet 1951
as Jerry Connell
Target Unknown 1951
as Sgt. Ralph Phelps
Kansas Raiders 1950
as Cole Younger
Winchester '73 1950
as Crater
Peggy 1950
as Frank Addison
I Was a Shoplifter 1950
Actor
Comanche Territory 1950
as Sam
One Way Street 1950
as Driver (uncredited)
Credits from TMDB.