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