James Best

Known For

Acting

Born

Jul 26, 1926

Died

Apr 06, 2015

Place of Birth

Powderly, Kentucky, USA

Credits

154 titles

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

2021

Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!

Self

Movie
2013

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

Self (archive footage)

Movie
2013

The Sweeter Side of Life

Paddy Kerrigan

Movie
2012

Return of the Killer Shrews

Thorne Sherman

Movie
2007

Moondance Alexander

McClancy

Movie
2006

Hot Tamale

Hank Larson

Movie
2005

CMT: Inside Fame

Tv
2002

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)

Movie
2000

The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood

Rosco P. Coltrane

Movie
1997

The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!

Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane

Movie
1996

E! True Hollywood Story

Tv
1995

Death Mask

Wilbur Johnson

Movie
1989

B.L. Stryker

Tv
1988

In the Heat of the Night

Tv
1983

The Dukes

Rosco Coltrane (voice)

Tv
1980

Enos

Tv
1979

The Dukes of Hazzard

Rosco P. Coltrane

Tv
1978

Centennial

Tv
1978

Hooper

Cully

Movie
1978

The End

Pacemaker Patient

Movie
1977

Rolling Thunder

Texan

Movie
1977

The Savage Bees

Pellegrino

Movie
1976

Nickelodeon

Jim

Movie
1976

Gator

Production Assistant

Movie
1976

Ode to Billy Joe

Dewey Barksdale

Movie
1975

The Runaway Barge

Bingo Washington

Movie
1974

The Manhunter

Tv
1974

Savages

Sheriff Bert Hamilton

Movie
1973

Hawkins

Sheriff John Early

Tv
1972

Sounder

Sheriff Charlie Young

Movie
1972

The Brain Machine

Rev. Emory Neill

Movie
1970

Run, Simon, Run

Henry Burroughs

Movie
1968

The Mod Squad

Clay Lynch

Tv
1968

Lancer

Tv
1968

Firecreek

Drew

Movie
1967

The Guns of Will Sonnett

Tv
1967

First to Fight

Sergeant Carnavan

Movie
1966

Felony Squad

Tv
1966

The Green Hornet

Yale Barton

Tv
1966

Hawk

Tv
1966

Three on a Couch

Dr. Ben Mizer

Movie
1965

Honey West

Vince Zale

Tv
1965

Shenandoah

Carter, Rebel Soldier

Movie
1965

Black Spurs

Ralph Elkins

Movie
1964

Daniel Boone

Jethro Wyatt

Tv
1964

Flipper

Tv
1964

The Quick Gun

Scotty Wade

Movie
1963

Shock Corridor

Stuart

Movie
1963

Redigo

Tv
1963

Burke's Law

Tucson, 'The Cowboy'

Tv