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

The Fugitive

Perry Mason

Perry Mason

Bonanza

The Andy Griffith Show

The Rifleman

The Virginian

The Twilight Zone

All Movies (73)

• Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!2021 · as Self
• Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia2013 · as Self (archive footage)
• The Sweeter Side of Life2013 · as Paddy Kerrigan
• Return of the Killer Shrews2012 · as Thorne Sherman
• Moondance Alexander2007 · as McClancy
• Hot Tamale2006 · as Hank Larson
• The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller2002 · as Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood2000 · as Rosco P. Coltrane
• Death Mask1998 · as Wilbur Johnson
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!1997 · as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
• Hooper1978 · as Cully
• The End1978 · as Pacemaker Patient
• Rolling Thunder1977 · as Texan
• Nickelodeon1976 · as Jim
• The Savage Bees1976 · as Pellegrino
• Ode to Billy Joe1976 · as Dewey Barksdale
• The Runaway Barge1975 · as Bingo Washington
• Savages1974 · as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
• Sounder1972 · as Sheriff Charlie Young
• The Brain Machine1972 · as Rev. Emory Neill
• Run, Simon, Run1970 · as Henry Burroughs
• Firecreek1968 · as Drew
• First to Fight1967 · as Sergeant Carnavan
• Three on a Couch1966 · as Dr. Ben Mizer
• Shenandoah1965 · as Carter, Rebel Soldier
• Black Spurs1965 · as Ralph Elkins
• The Quick Gun1964 · as Scotty Wade
• Shock Corridor1963 · as Stuart
• Black Gold1962 · as Jericho Larkin
• The Mountain Road1960 · as Niergaard
• Aftermath1960 · as Hardy Coulter
• Cast a Long Shadow1959 · as Sam Mullen
• The Killer Shrews1959 · as Thorne Sherman
• Verboten!1959 · as Sgt. David Brent
• Ride Lonesome1959 · as Billy John
• The Naked and the Dead1958 · as Rhidges
• The Left Handed Gun1958 · as Tom Folliard
• Cole Younger, Gunfighter1958 · as Kit Caswell
• Man on the Prowl1957 · as Doug Gerhardt
• Last of the Badmen1957 · as Ted Hamilton
• Hot Summer Night1957 · as Kermit
• The Rack1956 · as Millard Chilson Cassidy
• Calling Homicide1956 · as Det. Arnie Arnhoff
• Gaby1956 · as Jim
• Forbidden Planet1956 · as Crewman (uncredited)
• Come Next Spring1956 · as Bill Jackson
• Top of the World1955 · as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
• Seven Angry Men1955 · as Jason Brown
• They Rode West1954 · as Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
• The Raid1954 · as Lt. Robinson
• Return from the Sea1954 · as Barr
• The Caine Mutiny1954 · as Lt. JG Jorgensen
• The Yellow Tomahawk1954 · as Private Bliss
• Riders to the Stars1954 · as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
• Skip Taylor1953
• City of Bad Men1953 · as Deputy Gig (uncredited)
• Column South1953 · as Primrose
• Seminole1953 · as Corp. Gerad
• Flat Top1952 · as Radio Operator
• Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair1952 · as Marvin Johnson
• Francis Goes to West Point1952 · as Corporal Ransom
• The Battle at Apache Pass1952 · as Cpl. Hassett
• Steel Town1952 · as Joe Rakich
• The Cimarron Kid1952 · as Bitter Creek Dalton
• Apache Drums1951 · as Bert Keon
• Air Cadet1951 · as Jerry Connell
• Target Unknown1951 · as Sgt. Ralph Phelps
• Kansas Raiders1950 · as Cole Younger
• Winchester '731950 · as Crater
• Peggy1950 · as Frank Addison
• I Was a Shoplifter1950
• Comanche Territory1950 · as Sam
• One Way Street1950 · as Driver (uncredited)

All TV Shows (91)

• CMT: Inside Fame2005
• E! True Hollywood Story1996
• B.L. Stryker1989
• In the Heat of the Night1988
• The Dukes1983 · as Rosco Coltrane (voice)
• Enos1980
• The Dukes of Hazzard1979 · as Rosco P. Coltrane
• Centennial1978
• The Manhunter1974
• Hawkins1973 · as Sheriff John Early
• Lancer1968
• The Mod Squad1968 · as Clay Lynch
• The Guns of Will Sonnett1967
• Felony Squad1966
• The Green Hornet1966 · as Yale Barton
• Hawk1966
• Honey West1965 · as Vince Zale
• Daniel Boone1964 · as Jethro Wyatt
• Flipper1964
• Redigo1963
• Burke's Law1963 · as Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
• Temple Houston1963 · as Gotch
• The Fugitive1963 · as Dan Murray
• The Gallant Men1962
• Combat!1962 · as Trenton
• General Electric True1962
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour1962 · as Tom Carmody
• The Virginian1962 · as Curt Westley
• Ben Casey1961
• Whispering Smith1961
• Surfside 61960
• Stagecoach West1960
• The Andy Griffith Show1960 · as Jim Lindsey
• Michael Shayne1960
• The Barbara Stanwyck Show1960 · as Joe
• Pony Express1960 · as Bart Gentry
• Overland Trail1960
• Hawaiian Eye1959
• Startime1959 · as Duke
• The Rebel1959 · as Ted Evans
• The Rebel1959 · as Abel Waares
• The Twilight Zone1959 · as Jeff Myrtlebank
• The Twilight Zone1959 · as Billy-Ben Turner
• Men Into Space1959
• Lock-Up1959
• The DuPont Show with June Allyson1959 · as Jovan Wilanskov
• Laramie1959
• The Man and the Challenge1959
• Bonanza1959 · as Sheriff Vern Schaler
• The David Niven Show1959 · as Boland
• Black Saddle1959 · as Ben Travers
• Rawhide1959 · as Willie Cain
• Rawhide1959 · as Brock Quade
• 77 Sunset Strip1958
• Bat Masterson1958 · as Joe Best
• Bat Masterson1958 · as Danny Dakota
• Behind Closed Doors1958 · as Webb
• The Rifleman1958
• The Texan1958
• Bronco1958
• Wanted: Dead or Alive1958 · as Stoner
• Wanted: Dead or Alive1958 · as Luke Perry
• Tombstone Territory1957
• Trackdown1957
• Perry Mason1957 · as Allan Winford
• Perry Mason1957 · as Martin Potter
• Have Gun, Will Travel1957
• Richard Diamond, Private Detective1957 · as Jack Milhoan
• West Point1956
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents1955 · as Norman Frayne
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents1955 · as Hennessy
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents1955 · as Bish Darby
• Frontier1955
• Cheyenne1955
• Gunsmoke1955 · as Beal
• Gunsmoke1955 · as Charlie Noon
• Buffalo Bill Jr.1955
• The Millionaire1955 · as Fred Morgan
• Climax!1954 · as Shag
• The Lineup1954
• Stories of the Century1954
• General Electric Theater1953 · as Hardy Coulter
• Cavalcade of America1952
• Cavalcade of America1952 · as Harry
• Cavalcade of America1952 · as Slate Morley
• Hopalong Cassidy1952
• Hallmark Hall of Fame1951
• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars1951
• The Adventures of Kit Carson1951
• Lux Video Theatre1950 · as Clem Wallace
• The Gene Autry Show1950