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: Acting

Born: Powderly, Kentucky, USA, 1926-07-26

Died: 2015-04-06

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	One Way Street	Driver (uncredited)	52
2	1950	Comanche Territory	Sam	48
3	1950	I Was a Shoplifter		53
4	1950	Peggy	Frank Addison	47
5	1950	Winchester '73	Crater	73
6	1950	Kansas Raiders	Cole Younger	58
7	1951	Target Unknown	Sgt. Ralph Phelps	0
8	1951	Air Cadet	Jerry Connell	50
9	1951	Apache Drums	Bert Keon	62
10	1952	The Cimarron Kid	Bitter Creek Dalton	61
11	1952	The Battle at Apache Pass	Cpl. Hassett	63
12	1952	Steel Town	Joe Rakich	60
13	1952	Francis Goes to West Point	Cpl. Ransom	58
14	1952	Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair	Marvin Johnson	59
15	1953	Seminole	Corp. Gerad	54
16	1953	Column South	Primrose	60
17	1953	City of Bad Men	Deputy Gig (uncredited)	58
18	1953	Skip Taylor		0
19	1954	Riders to the Stars	Dr. Sidney K. Fuller	55
20	1954	The Yellow Tomahawk	Private Bliss	60
21	1954	The Caine Mutiny	Lt. JG Jorgensen	72
22	1954	Return from the Sea	Barr	45
23	1954	The Raid	Lt. Robinson	65
24	1954	They Rode West	Lt. Finlay (uncredited)	63
25	1955	Seven Angry Men	Jason Brown	52
26	1955	Top of the World	Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)	63
27	1956	Come Next Spring	Bill Jackson	60
28	1956	Forbidden Planet	Crewman (uncredited)	72
29	1956	Gaby	Jim	70
30	1956	Calling Homicide	Det. Arnie Arnhoff	57
31	1956	The Rack	Millard Chilson Cassidy	66
32	1957	Hot Summer Night	Kermit	56
33	1957	Last of the Badmen	Ted Hamilton	57
34	1957	Man on the Prowl	Doug Gerhardt	23
35	1958	Cole Younger, Gunfighter	Kit Caswell	62
36	1958	The Left Handed Gun	Tom Folliard	61
37	1958	The Naked and the Dead	Rhidges	59
38	1959	Ride Lonesome	Billy John	67
39	1959	Verboten!	Sgt. David Brent	65
40	1959	The Killer Shrews	Thorne Sherman	43
41	1959	Cast a Long Shadow	Sam Mullen	64
42	1960	Aftermath	Hardy Coulter	80
43	1960	The Mountain Road	Niergaard	64
44	1962	Black Gold	Jericho Larkin	10
45	1963	Shock Corridor	Stuart	70
46	1964	The Quick Gun	Scotty Wade	63
47	1965	Black Spurs	Ralph Elkins	61
48	1965	Shenandoah	Carter, Rebel Soldier	69
49	1966	Three on a Couch	Dr. Ben Mizer	54
50	1967	First to Fight	Sergeant Carnavan	79
51	1968	Firecreek	Drew	64
52	1970	Run, Simon, Run	Henry Burroughs	52
53	1972	The Brain Machine	Rev. Emory Neill	27
54	1972	Sounder	Sheriff Charlie Young	75
55	1974	Savages	Sheriff Bert Hamilton	63
56	1975	The Runaway Barge	Bingo Washington	0
57	1976	Ode to Billy Joe	Dewey Barksdale	63
58	1976	The Savage Bees	Pellegrino	50
59	1976	Nickelodeon	Jim	61
60	1977	Rolling Thunder	Texan	68
61	1978	The End	Pacemaker Patient	55
62	1978	Hooper	Cully	63
63	1997	The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!	Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane	52
64	1998	Death Mask	Wilbur Johnson	56
65	2000	The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood	Rosco P. Coltrane	58
66	2002	The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller	Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)	58
67	2004	The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made	Thorne Sherman (archive footage)	46
68	2006	Hot Tamale	Hank Larson	50
69	2007	Moondance Alexander	McClancy	59
70	2012	Return of the Killer Shrews	Thorne Sherman	53
71	2013	The Sweeter Side of Life	Paddy Kerrigan	58
72	2013	Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia	Self (archive footage)	78
73	2021	Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!	Self	40

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	The Gene Autry Show		42
2	1950	Lux Video Theatre	Clem Wallace	63
3	1951	The Adventures of Kit Carson		53
4	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars		73
5	1951	Hallmark Hall of Fame		86
6	1952	Hopalong Cassidy		52
7	1952	Cavalcade of America		35
8	1952	Cavalcade of America	Harry	35
9	1952	Cavalcade of America	Slate Morley	35
10	1953	General Electric Theater	Hardy Coulter	63
11	1954	Stories of the Century		57
12	1954	The Lineup		50
13	1954	Climax!	Shag	33
14	1955	The Millionaire	Fred Morgan	50
15	1955	Buffalo Bill Jr.		50
16	1955	Gunsmoke	Beal	66
17	1955	Gunsmoke	Charlie Noon	66
18	1955	Cheyenne		58
19	1955	Frontier		50
20	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Norman Frayne	77
21	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Hennessy	77
22	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Bish Darby	77
23	1956	West Point		50
24	1957	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	Jack Milhoan	62
25	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel		74
26	1957	Perry Mason	Allan Winford	77
27	1957	Perry Mason	Martin Potter	77
28	1957	Trackdown		64
29	1957	Tombstone Territory		60
30	1958	Wanted: Dead or Alive	Stoner	69
31	1958	Wanted: Dead or Alive	Luke Perry	69
32	1958	Bronco		52
33	1958	The Texan		55
34	1958	The Rifleman		70
35	1958	Behind Closed Doors	Webb	0
36	1958	Bat Masterson	Joe Best	61
37	1958	Bat Masterson	Danny Dakota	61
38	1958	77 Sunset Strip		67
39	1959	Rawhide	Willie Cain	72
40	1959	Rawhide	Brock Quade	72
41	1959	Black Saddle	Ben Travers	60
42	1959	The David Niven Show	Boland	0
43	1959	The Man and the Challenge		0
44	1959	Bonanza	Sheriff Vern Schaler	75
45	1959	Laramie		64
46	1959	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Jovan Wilanskov	63
47	1959	Lock-Up		62
48	1959	Men Into Space		70
49	1959	The Twilight Zone	Jeff Myrtlebank	84
50	1959	The Twilight Zone	Billy-Ben Turner	84
51	1959	The Rebel	Ted Evans	51
52	1959	The Rebel	Abel Waares	51
53	1959	Startime		60
54	1959	Hawaiian Eye		52
55	1960	Overland Trail		53
56	1960	Pony Express	Bart Gentry	65
57	1960	The Barbara Stanwyck Show	Joe	62
58	1960	Michael Shayne		50
59	1960	The Andy Griffith Show	Jim Lindsey	76
60	1960	Stagecoach West		60
61	1960	Surfside 6		50
62	1961	Whispering Smith		53
63	1961	Ben Casey		56
64	1962	The Virginian	Curt Westley	65
65	1962	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Tom Carmody	78
66	1962	General Electric True		0
67	1962	Combat!	Trenton	77
68	1962	The Gallant Men		60
69	1963	The Fugitive	Dan Murray	72
70	1963	Burke's Law	Tucson, 'The Cowboy'	60
71	1963	Redigo		50
72	1964	Flipper		61
73	1964	Daniel Boone	Jethro Wyatt	69
74	1965	Honey West	Vince Zale	70
75	1966	Hawk		0
76	1966	The Green Hornet	Yale Barton	71
77	1966	Felony Squad		64
78	1967	The Guns of Will Sonnett		62
79	1968	The Mod Squad		63
80	1968	Lancer		47
81	1973	Hawkins	Sheriff John Early	72
82	1974	The Manhunter		50
83	1978	Centennial		76
84	1979	The Dukes of Hazzard	Rosco P. Coltrane	74
85	1980	Enos		60
86	1983	The Dukes	Rosco Coltrane (voice)	37
87	1988	In the Heat of the Night		74
88	1989	B.L. Stryker		60
89	1996	E! True Hollywood Story		81
90	2005	CMT: Inside Fame		70

James Best

Film

Television