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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
Shenandoah
Carter, Rebel Soldier
Run, Simon, Run
Henry Burroughs
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
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
Verboten!
Sgt. David Brent
The Brain Machine
Rev. Emory Neill
Comanche Territory
Sam
Hot Summer Night
Kermit
Kansas Raiders
Cole Younger
The Mountain Road
Niergaard
The Quick Gun
Scotty Wade
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
I Was a Shoplifter
Return of the Killer Shrews
Thorne Sherman
One Way Street
Driver (uncredited)
Nickelodeon
Jim
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
The End
Pacemaker Patient
Black Gold
Jericho Larkin
Target Unknown
Sgt. Ralph Phelps
City of Bad Men
Deputy Gig (uncredited)
Ode to Billy Joe
Dewey Barksdale
Come Next Spring
Bill Jackson
Last of the Badmen
Ted Hamilton
Three on a Couch
Dr. Ben Mizer
Air Cadet
Jerry Connell
Sounder
Sheriff Charlie Young
The Battle at Apache Pass
Cpl. Hassett
Aftermath
Hardy Coulter
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
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
Self
The Caine Mutiny
Lt. JG Jorgensen
Return from the Sea
Barr
The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made
Thorne Sherman (archive footage)
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
Skip Taylor
Shows
The Andy Griffith Show
Jim Lindsey
In the Heat of the Night
The Gallant Men
77 Sunset Strip
Burke's Law
Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
Cheyenne
Trackdown
E! True Hollywood Story
The Twilight Zone
Jeff Myrtlebank
Hawkins
Sheriff John Early
Flipper
Surfside 6
The Mod Squad
Gunsmoke
Beal
Perry Mason
Allan Winford
Combat!
Trenton
General Electric Theater
Hardy Coulter
Hawaiian Eye
Centennial
Hallmark Hall of Fame
The Twilight Zone
Billy-Ben Turner
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Norman Frayne
Redigo
The Man and the Challenge
Felony Squad
Rawhide
Willie Cain
Have Gun, Will Travel
The Dukes
Rosco Coltrane (voice)
Daniel Boone
Jethro Wyatt
The Fugitive
Dan Murray
The Millionaire
Fred Morgan
The Virginian
Curt Westley
Lancer
West Point
Lux Video Theatre
Clem Wallace
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
The Gene Autry Show
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Jack Milhoan
Climax!
Shag
Men into Space
Enos
Bronco
The Lineup
Black Saddle
Ben Travers
Lock-Up
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Stoner
The Rifleman
The Rebel
Ted Evans
Bat Masterson
Joe Best
Ben Casey
Laramie
The Guns of Will Sonnett
The Texan
Stagecoach West
Buffalo Bill Jr.
The Manhunter
Cavalcade of America
Honey West
Vince Zale
Tombstone Territory
General Electric True
The David Niven Show
Boland
Overland Trail
Stories of the Century
CMT: Inside Fame
Frontier
The Adventures of Kit Carson
Pony Express
Bart Gentry
Whispering Smith
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
Jovan Wilanskov
Hopalong Cassidy
Startime
Michael Shayne
Hawk
Behind Closed Doors
Webb
The Green Hornet
Yale Barton
B.L. Stryker
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
Joe
The Dukes of Hazzard
Rosco P. Coltrane
Rawhide
Brock Quade
Gunsmoke
Charlie Noon
Cavalcade of America
Harry
Cavalcade of America
Slate Morley
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Luke Perry
The Rebel
Abel Waares
Perry Mason
Martin Potter
Bat Masterson
Danny Dakota
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Hennessy
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Bish Darby
Bonanza
Sheriff Vern Schaler
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Tom Carmody