James Best
Acting
1926-07-26 · Powderly, Kentucky, USA
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).
Filmography
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
2021 · Movie
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013 · Movie
The Sweeter Side of Life
2013 · Movie
Return of the Killer Shrews
2012 · Movie
Moondance Alexander
2007 · Movie
Hot Tamale
2006 · Movie
CMT: Inside Fame
2005 · Series
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002 · Movie
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
2000 · Movie
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
1997 · Movie
E! True Hollywood Story
1996 · Series
Death Mask
1995 · Movie
B.L. Stryker
1989 · Series
In the Heat of the Night
1988 · Series
The Dukes
1983 · Series
Enos
1980 · Series
The Dukes of Hazzard
1979 · Series
Centennial
1978 · Series
Hooper
1978 · Movie
The End
1978 · Movie
Rolling Thunder
1977 · Movie
The Savage Bees
1977 · Movie
Nickelodeon
1976 · Movie
Gator
1976 · Movie
Ode to Billy Joe
1976 · Movie
The Runaway Barge
1975 · Movie
The Manhunter
1974 · Series
Savages
1974 · Movie
Hawkins
1973 · Series
Sounder
1972 · Movie
The Brain Machine
1972 · Movie
Run, Simon, Run
1970 · Movie
Lancer
1968 · Series
The Mod Squad
1968 · Series
Firecreek
1968 · Movie
The Guns of Will Sonnett
1967 · Series
First to Fight
1967 · Movie
Felony Squad
1966 · Series
The Green Hornet
1966 · Series
Hawk
1966 · Series
Three on a Couch
1966 · Movie
Honey West
1965 · Series
Shenandoah
1965 · Movie
Black Spurs
1965 · Movie
Daniel Boone
1964 · Series
Flipper
1964 · Series
The Quick Gun
1964 · Movie
Shock Corridor
1963 · Movie
Redigo
1963 · Series
Burke's Law
1963 · Series
Temple Houston
1963 · Series
The Fugitive
1963 · Series
The Gallant Men
1962 · Series
Combat!
1962 · Series
General Electric True
1962 · Series
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962 · Series
The Virginian
1962 · Series
Black Gold
1962 · Movie
Ben Casey
1961 · Series
Whispering Smith
1961 · Series
Surfside 6
1960 · Series
Stagecoach West
1960 · Series
The Andy Griffith Show
1960 · Series
Michael Shayne
1960 · Series
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
1960 · Series
The Mountain Road
1960 · Movie
Aftermath
1960 · Movie
Pony Express
1960 · Series
Overland Trail
1960 · Series
Hawaiian Eye
1959 · Series
Startime
1959 · Series
The Rebel
1959 · Series
The Twilight Zone
1959 · Series
Men Into Space
1959 · Series
Lock-Up
1959 · Series
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
1959 · Series
Laramie
1959 · Series
Bonanza
1959 · Series
The Man and the Challenge
1959 · Series
Cast a Long Shadow
1959 · Movie
The Killer Shrews
1959 · Movie
The David Niven Show
1959 · Series
Verboten!
1959 · Movie
Ride Lonesome
1959 · Movie
Black Saddle
1959 · Series
Rawhide
1959 · Series
77 Sunset Strip
1958 · Series
Bat Masterson
1958 · Series
Behind Closed Doors
1958 · Series
The Rifleman
1958 · Series
The Texan
1958 · Series
Bronco
1958 · Series
Wanted: Dead or Alive
1958 · Series
The Naked and the Dead
1958 · Movie
The Left Handed Gun
1958 · Movie
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
1958 · Movie
Man on the Prowl
1957 · Movie
Tombstone Territory
1957 · Series
Trackdown
1957 · Series
Perry Mason
1957 · Series
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957 · Series
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
1957 · Series
Last of the Badmen
1957 · Movie
Hot Summer Night
1957 · Movie
The Rack
1956 · Movie
West Point
1956 · Series
Calling Homicide
1956 · Movie
Gaby
1956 · Movie
Forbidden Planet
1956 · Movie
Come Next Spring
1956 · Movie
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · Series
Frontier
1955 · Series
Cheyenne
1955 · Series
Gunsmoke
1955 · Series
Top of the World
1955 · Movie
Seven Angry Men
1955 · Movie
Buffalo Bill Jr.
1955 · Series
The Millionaire
1955 · Series
They Rode West
1954 · Movie
Climax!
1954 · Series
The Lineup
1954 · Series
The Raid
1954 · Movie
Return from the Sea
1954 · Movie
The Caine Mutiny
1954 · Movie
The Yellow Tomahawk
1954 · Movie
Stories of the Century
1954 · Series
Riders to the Stars
1954 · Movie
Skip Taylor
1953 · Movie
City of Bad Men
1953 · Movie
Column South
1953 · Movie
Seminole
1953 · Movie
General Electric Theater
1953 · Series
Flat Top
1952 · Movie
Cavalcade of America
1952 · Series
Hopalong Cassidy
1952 · Series
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952 · Movie
Francis Goes to West Point
1952 · Movie
The Battle at Apache Pass
1952 · Movie
Steel Town
1952 · Movie
The Cimarron Kid
1952 · Movie
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951 · Series
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951 · Series
The Adventures of Kit Carson
1951 · Series
Apache Drums
1951 · Movie
Air Cadet
1951 · Movie
Target Unknown
1951 · Movie
Kansas Raiders
1950 · Movie
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · Series
The Gene Autry Show
1950 · Series
Winchester '73
1950 · Movie
Peggy
1950 · Movie
I Was a Shoplifter
1950 · Movie
Comanche Territory
1950 · Movie
One Way Street
1950 · Movie