Quick Facts
Born:
1926-07-26
Birthplace:
Powderly, Kentucky, USA
Credits:
162 Total Roles
James Best
Acting
The MovieWise Take
Refining cinematic analysis...
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).
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
Forbidden Planet
Crewman (uncredited)
The Twilight Zone
Jeff Myrtlebank
The Twilight Zone
Billy-Ben Turner
Bonanza
Sheriff Vern Schaler
Winchester '73
Crater
The Caine Mutiny
Lt. JG Jorgensen
The Dukes of Hazzard
Rosco P. Coltrane
Shock Corridor
Stuart
Full Filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists! MOVIE | Self |
| 2013 | Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia MOVIE | Self (archive footage) |
| 2013 | The Sweeter Side of Life MOVIE | Paddy Kerrigan |
| 2012 | Return of the Killer Shrews MOVIE | Thorne Sherman |
| 2007 | Moondance Alexander MOVIE | McClancy |
| 2006 | Hot Tamale MOVIE | Hank Larson |
| 2005 | CMT: Inside Fame TV | Self |
| 2002 | The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller MOVIE | Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| 2000 | The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood MOVIE | Rosco P. Coltrane |
| 1998 | Death Mask MOVIE | Wilbur Johnson |