James Best
Acting • Born 1926-07-26 – Died 2015-04-06
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).
Filmography
162 credits
Hot Tamale
Movie • 2006
Hank Larson
Firecreek
Movie • 1968
Drew
Run, Simon, Run
Movie • 1970
Henry Burroughs
Shenandoah
Movie • 1965
Carter, Rebel Soldier
Rolling Thunder
Movie • 1977
Texan
Shock Corridor
Movie • 1963
Stuart
Death Mask
Movie • 1998
Wilbur Johnson
Ride Lonesome
Movie • 1959
Billy John
Moondance Alexander
Movie • 2007
McClancy
Winchester '73
Movie • 1950
Crater
The Left Handed Gun
Movie • 1958
Tom Folliard
The Cimarron Kid
Movie • 1952
Bitter Creek Dalton
The Killer Shrews
Movie • 1959
Thorne Sherman
The Naked and the Dead
Movie • 1958
Rhidges
Hooper
Movie • 1978
Cully
Seminole
Movie • 1953
Corp. Gerad
Calling Homicide
Movie • 1956
Det. Arnie Arnhoff
The Rack
Movie • 1956
Millard Chilson Cassidy
Apache Drums
Movie • 1951
Bert Keon
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Movie • 2002
Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
Verboten!
Movie • 1959
Sgt. David Brent
The Brain Machine
Movie • 1972
Rev. Emory Neill
Comanche Territory
Movie • 1950
Sam
Hot Summer Night
Movie • 1957
Kermit
Kansas Raiders
Movie • 1950
Cole Younger
The Mountain Road
Movie • 1960
Niergaard
The Quick Gun
Movie • 1964
Scotty Wade
Gaby
Movie • 1956
Jim
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
Movie • 1997
Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
Movie • 2000
Rosco P. Coltrane
Man on the Prowl
Movie • 1957
Doug Gerhardt
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
Movie • 1958
Kit Caswell
I Was a Shoplifter
Movie • 1950
Return of the Killer Shrews
Movie • 2012
Thorne Sherman
One Way Street
Movie • 1950
Driver (uncredited)
Nickelodeon
Movie • 1976
Jim
Savages
Movie • 1974
Sheriff Bert Hamilton
Cast a Long Shadow
Movie • 1959
Sam Mullen
Top of the World
Movie • 1955
Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
The Sweeter Side of Life
Movie • 2013
Paddy Kerrigan
The End
Movie • 1978
Pacemaker Patient
Black Gold
Movie • 1962
Jericho Larkin
Target Unknown
Movie • 1951
Sgt. Ralph Phelps
City of Bad Men
Movie • 1953
Deputy Gig (uncredited)
Ode to Billy Joe
Movie • 1976
Dewey Barksdale
Come Next Spring
Movie • 1956
Bill Jackson
Last of the Badmen
Movie • 1957
Ted Hamilton
Three on a Couch
Movie • 1966
Dr. Ben Mizer
Air Cadet
Movie • 1951
Jerry Connell
Sounder
Movie • 1972
Sheriff Charlie Young
The Battle at Apache Pass
Movie • 1952
Cpl. Hassett
Aftermath
Movie • 1960
Hardy Coulter
Forbidden Planet
Movie • 1956
Crewman (uncredited)
The Raid
Movie • 1954
Lt. Robinson
First to Fight
Movie • 1967
Sergeant Carnavan
The Runaway Barge
Movie • 1975
Bingo Washington
Black Spurs
Movie • 1965
Ralph Elkins
The Yellow Tomahawk
Movie • 1954
Private Bliss
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
Movie • 2021
Self
The Caine Mutiny
Movie • 1954
Lt. JG Jorgensen
Return from the Sea
Movie • 1954
Barr
Francis Goes to West Point
Movie • 1952
Corporal Ransom
Peggy
Movie • 1950
Frank Addison
Seven Angry Men
Movie • 1955
Jason Brown
Column South
Movie • 1953
Primrose
Steel Town
Movie • 1952
Joe Rakich
Riders to the Stars
Movie • 1954
Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Movie • 1952
Marvin Johnson
The Savage Bees
Movie • 1976
Pellegrino
Skip Taylor
Movie • 1953
They Rode West
Movie • 1954
Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
Movie • 2013
Self (archive footage)
The Andy Griffith Show
TV • 1960
Jim Lindsey
In the Heat of the Night
TV • 1988
The Gallant Men
TV • 1962
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Burke's Law
TV • 1963
Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Trackdown
TV • 1957
E! True Hollywood Story
TV • 1996
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Jeff Myrtlebank
Hawkins
TV • 1973
Sheriff John Early
Flipper
TV • 1964
Surfside 6
TV • 1960
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Beal
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Allan Winford
Combat!
TV • 1962
Trenton
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Hardy Coulter
Hawaiian Eye
TV • 1959
Centennial
TV • 1978
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Billy-Ben Turner
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Norman Frayne
Redigo
TV • 1963
The Man and the Challenge
TV • 1959
Felony Squad
TV • 1966
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Willie Cain
Have Gun, Will Travel
TV • 1957
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Jethro Wyatt
The Dukes
TV • 1983
Rosco Coltrane (voice)
The Fugitive
TV • 1963
Dan Murray
The Millionaire
TV • 1955
Fred Morgan
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Curt Westley
Lancer
TV • 1968
West Point
TV • 1956
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Clem Wallace
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
TV • 1951
The Gene Autry Show
TV • 1950
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
TV • 1957
Jack Milhoan
Climax!
TV • 1954
Shag
Men Into Space
TV • 1959
Enos
TV • 1980
Bronco
TV • 1958
The Lineup
TV • 1954
Black Saddle
TV • 1959
Ben Travers
Lock-Up
TV • 1959
The Rebel
TV • 1959
Ted Evans
Wanted: Dead or Alive
TV • 1958
Stoner
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Bat Masterson
TV • 1958
Joe Best
Laramie
TV • 1959
Ben Casey
TV • 1961
The Guns of Will Sonnett
TV • 1967
The Texan
TV • 1958
Stagecoach West
TV • 1960
Buffalo Bill Jr.
TV • 1955
Cavalcade of America
TV • 1952
The Manhunter
TV • 1974
Honey West
TV • 1965
Vince Zale
Tombstone Territory
TV • 1957
General Electric True
TV • 1962
The David Niven Show
TV • 1959
Boland
Overland Trail
TV • 1960
Stories of the Century
TV • 1954
CMT: Inside Fame
TV • 2005
Frontier
TV • 1955
The Adventures of Kit Carson
TV • 1951
Pony Express
TV • 1960
Bart Gentry
Whispering Smith
TV • 1961
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
TV • 1959
Jovan Wilanskov
Hopalong Cassidy
TV • 1952
Startime
TV • 1959
Michael Shayne
TV • 1960
Hawk
TV • 1966
Behind Closed Doors
TV • 1958
Webb
The Green Hornet
TV • 1966
Yale Barton
B.L. Stryker
TV • 1989
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
TV • 1960
Joe
The Dukes of Hazzard
TV • 1979
Rosco P. Coltrane
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Brock Quade
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Charlie Noon
Cavalcade of America
TV • 1952
Harry
Cavalcade of America
TV • 1952
Slate Morley
Wanted: Dead or Alive
TV • 1958
Luke Perry
The Rebel
TV • 1959
Abel Waares
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Martin Potter
Bat Masterson
TV • 1958
Danny Dakota
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Hennessy
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Bish Darby
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Sheriff Vern Schaler
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Tom Carmody
The Mod Squad
TV • 1968
Clay Lynch