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
all 152
TV Shows 81
Movies 71
self 1
Writer 1
Producer 1
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (2013)
The Sweeter Side of Life (2013)
Return of the Killer Shrews (2012)
Moondance Alexander (2007)
Hot Tamale (2006)
CMT: Inside Fame (2005)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller (2002)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000)
Death Mask (1998)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! (1997)
E! True Hollywood Story (1996)
B.L. Stryker (1989)
In the Heat of the Night (1988)
The Dukes (1983)
Andy Kaufman: The Midnight Special (1981)
Enos (1980)
The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)
Centennial (1978)
Hooper (1978)
The End (1978)
Rolling Thunder (1977)
How the West Was Won (1977)
Nickelodeon (1976)
The Savage Bees (1976)
Gator (1976)
Ode to Billy Joe (1976)
The Runaway Barge (1975)
Savages (1974)
The Manhunter (1974)
Hawkins (1973)
Sounder (1972)
The Brain Machine (1972)
Run, Simon, Run (1970)
Lancer (1968)
The Mod Squad (1968)
Firecreek (1968)
The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967)
First to Fight (1967)
Felony Squad (1966)
The Green Hornet (1966)
Hawk (1966)
Three on a Couch (1966)
Honey West (1965)
Shenandoah (1965)
Black Spurs (1965)
Daniel Boone (1964)
Flipper (1964)
The Quick Gun (1964)
Shock Corridor (1963)
Redigo (1963)
Burke's Law (1963)
Temple Houston (1963)
The Fugitive (1963)
The Gallant Men (1962)
Combat! (1962)
General Electric True (1962)
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962)
The Virginian (1962)
Black Gold (1962)
Ben Casey (1961)
Whispering Smith (1961)
Surfside 6 (1960)
Stagecoach West (1960)
The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
Michael Shayne (1960)
The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1960)
The Mountain Road (1960)
Aftermath (1960)
Pony Express (1960)
Overland Trail (1960)
Hawaiian Eye (1959)
Startime (1959)
The Rebel (1959)
The Twilight Zone (1959)
Men into Space (1959)
Lock Up (1959)
The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959)
Laramie (1959)
The Man and the Challenge (1959)
Cast a Long Shadow (1959)
The Killer Shrews (1959)
The David Niven Show (1959)
Verboten! (1959)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
Black Saddle (1959)
Rawhide (1959)
77 Sunset Strip (1958)
Bat Masterson (1958)
Behind Closed Doors (1958)
The Rifleman (1958)
The Texan (1958)
Bronco (1958)
Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958)
The Naked and the Dead (1958)
The Left Handed Gun (1958)
Cole Younger, Gunfighter (1958)
Man on the Prowl (1957)
Tombstone Territory (1957)
Trackdown (1957)
Perry Mason (1957)
Have Gun, Will Travel (1957)
Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957)
Last of the Badmen (1957)
Hot Summer Night (1957)
The Rack (1956)
West Point (1956)
Calling Homicide (1956)
Gaby (1956)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Come Next Spring (1956)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)
Frontier (1955)
Cheyenne (1955)
Gunsmoke (1955)
Top Of The World (1955)
Seven Angry Men (1955)
Buffalo Bill Jr. (1955)
The Millionaire (1955)
Climax! (1954)
The Lineup (1954)
The Raid (1954)
Return from the Sea (1954)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
The Yellow Tomahawk (1954)
Stories of the Century (1954)
Riders to the Stars (1954)
City of Bad Men (1953)
Column South (1953)
Seminole (1953)
General Electric Theater (1953)
Cavalcade of America (1952)
Hopalong Cassidy (1952)
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952)
Francis Goes to West Point (1952)
Steel Town (1952)
The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)
The Cimarron Kid (1952)
Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1951)
The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951)
Apache Drums (1951)
Air Cadet (1951)
Target Unknown (1951)
Kansas Raiders (1950)
Lux Video Theatre (1950)
The Gene Autry Show (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950)
Peggy (1950)
Cameo Theatre (1950)
I Was a Shoplifter (1950)
Comanche Territory (1950)
One Way Street (1950)
Ratings
Gallery
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1926-07-26
Deathday2015-04-06 (88 years old)
Birth PlacePowderly, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known AsJewel Franklin Guy, James K. Best, Jimmy Best, Jim Best
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