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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
July 26, 1926
Died
April 6, 2015
Place of Birth
Powderly, Kentucky, USA
Also Known As
- Jewel Franklin Guy
- James K. Best
- Jimmy Best
- Jim Best
James Best
1.0 Popularity
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).
Known For
4.7
Self
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
2021
7.8
Self (archive footage)
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013
5.8
Paddy Kerrigan
The Sweeter Side of Life
2013
5.3
Thorne Sherman
Return of the Killer Shrews
2012
6.0
McClancy
Moondance Alexander
2007
4.9
Hank Larson
Hot Tamale
2006
7.0
CMT: Inside Fame
2005
5.8
Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002
5.9
Rosco P. Coltrane
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
2000
5.0
Wilbur Johnson
Death Mask
1998
Credits
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
as Self
2021
4.7
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
as Self (archive footage)
2013
7.8
The Sweeter Side of Life
as Paddy Kerrigan
2013
5.8
Return of the Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
2012
5.3
Moondance Alexander
as McClancy
2007
6.0
Hot Tamale
as Hank Larson
2006
4.9
CMT: Inside Fame
2005
7.0
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
as Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
5.8
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
as Rosco P. Coltrane
2000
5.9
Death Mask
as Wilbur Johnson
1998
5.0
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
1997
5.2
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
8.1
B.L. Stryker
1989
6.0
In the Heat of the Night
1988
7.5
The Dukes
as Rosco Coltrane (voice)
1983
3.7
Enos
1980
7.0
The Dukes of Hazzard
as Rosco P. Coltrane
1979
7.3
Centennial
1978
7.7
Hooper
as Cully
1978
6.3
The End
as Pacemaker Patient
1978
5.5
Rolling Thunder
as Texan
1977
6.8
Nickelodeon
as Jim
1976
6.1
The Savage Bees
as Pellegrino
1976
5.1
Ode to Billy Joe
as Dewey Barksdale
1976
6.1
The Runaway Barge
as Bingo Washington
1975
0.0
The Manhunter
1974
5.0
Savages
as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
1974
6.3
Hawkins
as Sheriff John Early
1973
7.2
Sounder
as Sheriff Charlie Young
1972
7.5
The Brain Machine
as Rev. Emory Neill
1972
2.7
Run, Simon, Run
as Henry Burroughs
1970
4.7
The Mod Squad
as Clay Lynch
1968
6.2
Lancer
1968
4.7
Firecreek
as Drew
1968
6.3
The Guns of Will Sonnett
1967
6.2
First to Fight
as Sergeant Carnavan
1967
7.9
Felony Squad
1966
6.4
The Green Hornet
as Yale Barton
1966
7.2
Hawk
1966
0.0
Three on a Couch
as Dr. Ben Mizer
1966
5.3
Honey West
as Vince Zale
1965
7.0
Shenandoah
as Carter, Rebel Soldier
1965
6.9
Black Spurs
as Ralph Elkins
1965
6.1
Daniel Boone
as Jethro Wyatt
1964
7.0
Flipper
1964
6.1
The Quick Gun
as Scotty Wade
1964
6.3
Shock Corridor
as Stuart
1963
7.0
Redigo
1963
5.0
Burke's Law
as Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
1963
6.0
The Fugitive
as Dan Murray
1963
7.2
The Gallant Men
1962
6.0
Combat!
as Trenton
1962
7.7
General Electric True
1962
0.0
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Tom Carmody
1962
7.8
The Virginian
as Curt Westley
1962
6.4
Black Gold
as Jericho Larkin
1962
1.0
Ben Casey
1961
5.6
Whispering Smith
1961
5.3
Surfside 6
1960
5.0
Stagecoach West
1960
6.0
The Andy Griffith Show
as Jim Lindsey
1960
7.6
Michael Shayne
1960
5.0
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
as Joe
1960
6.2
The Mountain Road
as Niergaard
1960
6.7
🎬
Aftermath
as Hardy Coulter
1960
8.0
🎬
Pony Express
as Bart Gentry
1960
6.5
Overland Trail
1960
5.3
Hawaiian Eye
1959
5.2
Startime
1959
6.0
The Rebel
as Ted Evans
1959
4.7
The Rebel
as Abel Waares
1959
4.7
The Twilight Zone
as Jeff Myrtlebank
1959
8.5
The Twilight Zone
as Billy-Ben Turner
1959
8.5
Men Into Space
1959
7.0
Lock-Up
1959
6.2
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
as Jovan Wilanskov
1959
6.3
Laramie
1959
6.6
Bonanza
as Sheriff Vern Schaler
1959
7.5
The Man and the Challenge
1959
0.0
Cast a Long Shadow
as Sam Mullen
1959
6.4
The Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
1959
4.4
The David Niven Show
as Boland
1959
0.0
Verboten!
as Sgt. David Brent
1959
6.4
Ride Lonesome
as Billy John
1959
6.7
Black Saddle
as Ben Travers
1959
6.0
Rawhide
as Willie Cain
1959
7.2
Rawhide
as Brock Quade
1959
7.2
77 Sunset Strip
1958
6.7
Bat Masterson
as Joe Best
1958
6.1
Bat Masterson
as Danny Dakota
1958
6.1
Behind Closed Doors
as Webb
1958
0.0
The Rifleman
1958
7.1
The Texan
1958
5.5
Bronco
1958
5.9
Wanted: Dead or Alive
as Stoner
1958
6.8
Wanted: Dead or Alive
as Luke Perry
1958
6.8
The Naked and the Dead
as Rhidges
1958
5.8
The Left Handed Gun
as Tom Folliard
1958
6.1
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
as Kit Caswell
1958
6.2
Man on the Prowl
as Doug Gerhardt
1957
2.3
Tombstone Territory
1957
6.2
Trackdown
1957
6.4
Perry Mason
as Allan Winford
1957
7.7
Perry Mason
as Martin Potter
1957
7.7
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
7.3
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
as Jack Milhoan
1957
6.2
Last of the Badmen
as Ted Hamilton
1957
5.7
Hot Summer Night
as Kermit
1957
5.6
The Rack
as Millard Chilson Cassidy
1956
6.6
West Point
1956
5.0
Calling Homicide
as Det. Arnie Arnhoff
1956
5.9
Gaby
as Jim
1956
7.0
Forbidden Planet
as Crewman (uncredited)
1956
7.3
Come Next Spring
as Bill Jackson
1956
5.6
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Norman Frayne
1955
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Hennessy
1955
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Bish Darby
1955
7.8
Frontier
1955
5.0
Cheyenne
1955
6.0
Gunsmoke
as Beal
1955
6.6
Gunsmoke
as Charlie Noon
1955
6.6
Top of the World
as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
1955
6.3
Seven Angry Men
as Jason Brown
1955
5.2
Buffalo Bill Jr.
1955
5.0
The Millionaire
as Fred Morgan
1955
5.0
They Rode West
as Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
1954
6.4
Climax!
as Shag
1954
3.3
The Lineup
1954
5.0
The Raid
as Lt. Robinson
1954
6.5
Return from the Sea
as Barr
1954
4.5
The Caine Mutiny
as Lt. JG Jorgensen
1954
7.2
The Yellow Tomahawk
as Private Bliss
1954
6.0
Stories of the Century
1954
6.8
Riders to the Stars
as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
1954
5.5
🎬
Skip Taylor
1953
0.0
City of Bad Men
as Deputy Gig (uncredited)
1953
5.8
Column South
as Primrose
1953
6.0
Seminole
as Corp. Gerad
1953
5.4
General Electric Theater
as Hardy Coulter
1953
6.4
Cavalcade of America
1952
3.5
Cavalcade of America
as Harry
1952
3.5
Cavalcade of America
as Slate Morley
1952
3.5
Hopalong Cassidy
1952
5.1
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
as Marvin Johnson
1952
5.9
Francis Goes to West Point
as Corporal Ransom
1952
5.8
Steel Town
as Joe Rakich
1952
6.0
The Battle at Apache Pass
as Cpl. Hassett
1952
6.4
The Cimarron Kid
as Bitter Creek Dalton
1952
6.1
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
8.6
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
7.2
The Adventures of Kit Carson
1951
5.3
Apache Drums
as Bert Keon
1951
6.3
Air Cadet
as Jerry Connell
1951
5.0
Target Unknown
as Sgt. Ralph Phelps
1951
0.0
Kansas Raiders
as Cole Younger
1950
5.8
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Clem Wallace
1950
6.3
The Gene Autry Show
1950
4.2
Winchester '73
as Crater
1950
7.3
Peggy
as Frank Addison
1950
4.7
I Was a Shoplifter
1950
5.3
Comanche Territory
as Sam
1950
4.9
One Way Street
as Driver (uncredited)
1950
5.2