James Best
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).
Photos
Films (74)
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
2021 · Self
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013 · Self (archive footage)
The Sweeter Side of Life
2013 · Paddy Kerrigan
Return of the Killer Shrews
2012 · Thorne Sherman, Writer
Moondance Alexander
2007 · McClancy
Hot Tamale
2006 · Hank Larson
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002 · Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
Les Duke à Hollywood
2000 · Rosco P. Coltrane
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
1997 · Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
Death Mask
1995 · Wilbur Johnson, Writer
Hooper
1978 · Cully, Co-Writer
The End
1978 · Pacemaker Patient, Associate Producer
Rolling Thunder
1977 · Texan
The Savage Bees
1977 · Pellegrino
Nickelodeon
1976 · Jim
Gator
1976 · Production Assistant
Ode to Billy Joe
1976 · Dewey Barksdale
The Runaway Barge
1975 · Bingo Washington
Savages
1974 · Sheriff Bert Hamilton
Sounder
1972 · Sheriff Charlie Young
The Brain Machine
1972 · Rev. Emory Neill
Run, Simon, Run
1970 · Henry Burroughs
Firecreek
1968 · Drew
First to Fight
1967 · Sergeant Carnavan
Three on a Couch
1966 · Dr. Ben Mizer
Shenandoah
1965 · Carter, Rebel Soldier
Black Spurs
1965 · Ralph Elkins
The Quick Gun
1964 · Scotty Wade
Shock Corridor
1963 · Stuart
Black Gold
1962 · Jericho Larkin
The Mountain Road
1960 · Niergaard
Aftermath
1960 · Hardy Coulter
Cast a Long Shadow
1959 · Sam Mullen
The Killer Shrews
1959 · Thorne Sherman
Verboten!
1959 · Sgt. David Brent
Ride Lonesome
1959 · Billy John
The Naked and the Dead
1958 · Rhidges
The Left Handed Gun
1958 · Tom Folliard
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
1958 · Kit Caswell
Man on the Prowl
1957 · Doug Gerhardt
Last of the Badmen
1957 · Ted Hamilton
Hot Summer Night
1957 · Kermit
The Rack
1956 · Millard Chilson Cassidy
Calling Homicide
1956 · Det. Arnie Arnhoff
Gaby
1956 · Jim
Forbidden Planet
1956 · Crewman (uncredited)
Come Next Spring
1956 · Bill Jackson
Top of the World
1955 · Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
Seven Angry Men
1955 · Jason Brown
They Rode West
1954 · Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
The Raid
1954 · Lt. Robinson
Return from the Sea
1954 · Barr
The Caine Mutiny
1954 · Lt. JG Jorgensen
The Yellow Tomahawk
1954 · Private Bliss
Riders to the Stars
1954 · Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
Skip Taylor
1953
City of Bad Men
1953 · Deputy Gig (uncredited)
Column South
1953 · Primrose
Seminole
1953 · Corp. Gerad
Flat Top
1952 · Radio Operator
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952 · Marvin Johnson
Francis Goes to West Point
1952 · Corporal Ransom
The Battle at Apache Pass
1952 · Cpl. Hassett
Steel Town
1952 · Joe Rakich
The Cimarron Kid
1952 · Bitter Creek Dalton
Apache Drums
1951 · Bert Keon
Air Cadet
1951 · Jerry Connell
Target Unknown
1951 · Sgt. Ralph Phelps
Kansas Raiders
1950 · Cole Younger
Winchester '73
1950 · Crater
Peggy
1950 · Frank Addison
I Was a Shoplifter
1950
Comanche Territory
1950 · Sam
One Way Street
1950 · Driver (uncredited)
Séries (80)
CMT: Inside Fame
2005
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
B.L. Stryker
1989
In the Heat of the Night
1988
The Dukes
1983 · Rosco Coltrane (voice)
Enos
1980
The Dukes of Hazzard
1979 · Rosco P. Coltrane, Director
Centennial
1978
The Manhunter
1974
Hawkins
1973 · Sheriff John Early
Lancer
1968
The Mod Squad
1968 · Clay Lynch
The Guns of Will Sonnett
1967
Felony Squad
1966
The Green Hornet
1966 · Yale Barton
Hawk
1966
Honey West
1965 · Vince Zale
Daniel Boone
1964 · Jethro Wyatt
Flipper
1964
Redigo
1963
Burke's Law
1963 · Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
Temple Houston
1963 · Gotch
The Fugitive
1963 · Dan Murray
The Gallant Men
1962
Combat!
1962 · Trenton
General Electric True
1962
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962 · Tom Carmody
The Virginian
1962 · Curt Westley
Ben Casey
1961
Whispering Smith
1961
Surfside 6
1960
Stagecoach West
1960
The Andy Griffith Show
1960 · Jim Lindsey
Michael Shayne
1960
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
1960 · Joe
Pony Express
1960 · Bart Gentry
Overland Trail
1960
Hawaiian Eye
1959
Startime
1959 · Duke
The Rebel
1959 · Ted Evans, Abel Waares
The Twilight Zone
1959 · Jeff Myrtlebank, Billy-Ben Turner
Men Into Space
1959
Lock-Up
1959
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
1959 · Jovan Wilanskov
Laramie
1959
The Man and the Challenge
1959
Bonanza
1959 · Sheriff Vern Schaler
The David Niven Show
1959 · Boland
Black Saddle
1959 · Ben Travers
Rawhide
1959 · Willie Cain, Brock Quade
77 Sunset Strip
1958 · Babe Mackie
Bat Masterson
1958 · Joe Best, Danny Dakota
Behind Closed Doors
1958 · Webb
The Rifleman
1958
The Texan
1958
Bronco
1958
Wanted: Dead or Alive
1958 · Stoner, Luke Perry
Tombstone Territory
1957
Trackdown
1957
Perry Mason
1957 · Allan Winford, Martin Potter
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
1957 · Jack Milhoan
West Point
1956
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · Norman Frayne, Hennessy, Bish Darby
Frontier
1955
Cheyenne
1955
Gunsmoke
1955 · Beal, Charlie Noon
Buffalo Bill Jr.
1955
The Millionaire
1955 · Fred Morgan
Climax!
1954 · Shag
The Lineup
1954
Stories of the Century
1954
General Electric Theater
1953 · Hardy Coulter
Cavalcade of America
1952 · Harry, Slate Morley
Hopalong Cassidy
1952
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
The Adventures of Kit Carson
1951
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · Clem Wallace
The Gene Autry Show
1950