James Best

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1926-07-26

Deathday 2015-04-06 (88 years old)

Place of Birth Powderly, Kentucky, USA

Also Known As Jewel Franklin Guy, James K. Best, Jimmy Best, Jim Best

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

Actor

2013
The Sweeter Side of Life

as Paddy Kerrigan

2012
Return of the Killer Shrews

as Thorne Sherman

2007
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)

1998
Death Mask

as Wilbur Johnson

1997
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!

as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane

1983
The Dukes

as Rosco Coltrane (voice)

1980
1979
The Dukes of Hazzard

as Rosco P. Coltrane

1978
Hooper

as Cully

1978
The End

as Pacemaker Patient

1977
1976
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

1973
Hawkins

as Sheriff John Early

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

1968
1967
First to Fight

as Sergeant Carnavan

1966
Three on a Couch

as Dr. Ben Mizer

1966
The Green Hornet

as Yale Barton

1966
1965
Shenandoah

as Carter, Rebel Soldier

1965
Black Spurs

as Ralph Elkins

1965
Honey West

as Vince Zale

1964
The Quick Gun

as Scotty Wade

1964
Daniel Boone

as Jethro Wyatt

1963
Shock Corridor

as Stuart

1963
1963
Burke's Law

as Tucson, 'The Cowboy'

1963
The Fugitive

as Dan Murray

1962
Black Gold

as Jericho Larkin

1962
Combat!

as Trenton

1962
1962
The Virginian

as Curt Westley

1960
The Mountain Road

as Niergaard

1960
Aftermath

as Hardy Coulter

1960
The Andy Griffith Show

as Jim Lindsey

1960
Pony Express

as Bart Gentry

1959
Cast a Long Shadow

as Sam Mullen

1959
The Killer Shrews

as Thorne Sherman

1959
Verboten!

as Sgt. David Brent

1959
Ride Lonesome

as Billy John

1959
The Rebel

as Ted Evans

1959
The Rebel

as Abel Waares

1959
The Twilight Zone

as Jeff Myrtlebank

1959
The Twilight Zone

as Billy-Ben Turner

1959
1959
Bonanza

as Sheriff Vern Schaler

1959
1959
Black Saddle

as Ben Travers

1959
Rawhide

as Willie Cain

1959
Rawhide

as Brock Quade

1958
1958
The Left Handed Gun

as Tom Folliard

1958
1958
Bat Masterson

as Joe Best

1958
Bat Masterson

as Danny Dakota

1958
1958
1958
Wanted: Dead or Alive

as Luke Perry

1957
Man on the Prowl

as Doug Gerhardt

1957
Last of the Badmen

as Ted Hamilton

1957
1957
Perry Mason

as Allan Winford

1957
Perry Mason

as Martin Potter

1956
The Rack

as Millard Chilson Cassidy

1956
Calling Homicide

as Det. Arnie Arnhoff

1956
Gaby

as Jim

1956
Forbidden Planet

as Crewman (uncredited)

1956
Come Next Spring

as Bill Jackson

1955
Top of the World

as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)

1955
Seven Angry Men

as Jason Brown

1955
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

as Norman Frayne

1955
1955
Gunsmoke

as Beal

1955
Gunsmoke

as Charlie Noon

1955
The Millionaire

as Fred Morgan

1954
The Raid

as Lt. Robinson

1954
The Caine Mutiny

as Lt. JG Jorgensen

1954
The Yellow Tomahawk

as Private Bliss

1954
Riders to the Stars

as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller

1954
Climax!

as Shag

1953
City of Bad Men

as Deputy Gig (uncredited)

1953
Column South

as Primrose

1953
Seminole

as Corp. Gerad

1953
General Electric Theater

as Hardy Coulter

1952
1952
1952
1952
Steel Town

as Joe Rakich

1952
The Cimarron Kid

as Bitter Creek Dalton

1952
Cavalcade of America

as Slate Morley

1951
Apache Drums

as Bert Keon

1951
Air Cadet

as Jerry Connell

1951
Target Unknown

as Sgt. Ralph Phelps

1950
Kansas Raiders

as Cole Younger

1950
Winchester '73

as Crater

1950
Peggy

as Frank Addison

1950
One Way Street

as Driver (uncredited)

1950
Lux Video Theatre

as Clem Wallace

Writer

1998
Death Mask

as Writer

1978
Hooper

as Co-Writer

Producer

1978
The End

as Associate Producer

1976
Gator

as Production Assistant

Director

1979