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