Acting · Powderly, Kentucky, USA · Born July 26, 1926
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).
MovieHollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
2021
as Self
MovieGore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013
as Self (archive footage)
MovieThe Sweeter Side of Life
2013
as Paddy Kerrigan
MovieReturn of the Killer Shrews
2012
as Thorne Sherman
MovieMoondance Alexander
2007
as McClancy
MovieHot Tamale
2006
as Hank Larson
TVCMT: Inside Fame
2005
MovieThe Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002
as Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
MovieThe Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
2000
as Rosco P. Coltrane
MovieThe Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
1997
as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
TVE! True Hollywood Story
1996
MovieDeath Mask
1995
as Wilbur Johnson
TVB.L. Stryker
1989
TVIn the Heat of the Night
1988
TVThe Dukes
1983
as Rosco Coltrane (voice)
TVEnos
1980
TVThe Dukes of Hazzard
1979
as Rosco P. Coltrane
TVCentennial
1978
MovieHooper
1978
as Cully
MovieThe End
1978
as Pacemaker Patient
MovieRolling Thunder
1977
as Texan
MovieNickelodeon
1976
as Jim
MovieThe Savage Bees
1976
as Pellegrino
MovieOde to Billy Joe
1976
as Dewey Barksdale
MovieThe Runaway Barge
1975
as Bingo Washington
MovieSavages
1974
as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
TVThe Manhunter
1974
TVHawkins
1973
as Sheriff John Early
MovieSounder
1972
as Sheriff Charlie Young
MovieThe Brain Machine
1972
as Rev. Emory Neill
MovieRun, Simon, Run
1970
as Henry Burroughs
TVLancer
1968
TVThe Mod Squad
1968
as Clay Lynch
MovieFirecreek
1968
as Drew
TVThe Guns of Will Sonnett
1967
MovieFirst to Fight
1967
as Sergeant Carnavan
TVFelony Squad
1966
TVThe Green Hornet
1966
as Yale Barton
TVHawk
1966
MovieThree on a Couch
1966
as Dr. Ben Mizer
TVHoney West
1965
as Vince Zale
MovieShenandoah
1965
as Carter, Rebel Soldier
MovieBlack Spurs
1965
as Ralph Elkins
TVDaniel Boone
1964
as Jethro Wyatt
TVFlipper
1964
MovieThe Quick Gun
1964
as Scotty Wade
MovieShock Corridor
1963
as Stuart
TVRedigo
1963
TVBurke's Law
1963
as Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
TVTemple Houston
1963
as Gotch
TVThe Fugitive
1963
as Dan Murray
TVThe Gallant Men
1962
TVCombat!
1962
as Trenton
TVGeneral Electric True
1962
TVThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962
as Tom Carmody
TVThe Virginian
1962
as Curt Westley
MovieBlack Gold
1962
as Jericho Larkin
TVBen Casey
1961
TVWhispering Smith
1961
TVSurfside 6
1960
TVStagecoach West
1960
TVThe Andy Griffith Show
1960
as Jim Lindsey
TVMichael Shayne
1960
TVThe Barbara Stanwyck Show
1960
as Joe
MovieThe Mountain Road
1960
as Niergaard
Aftermath
1960
as Hardy Coulter
Pony Express
1960
as Bart Gentry
TVOverland Trail
1960
TVHawaiian Eye
1959
TVStartime
1959
as Duke
TVThe Rebel
1959
as Ted Evans
TVThe Twilight Zone
1959
as Jeff Myrtlebank
TVMen Into Space
1959
TVLock-Up
1959
TVThe DuPont Show with June Allyson
1959
as Jovan Wilanskov
TVLaramie
1959
TVThe Man and the Challenge
1959
TVBonanza
1959
as Sheriff Vern Schaler
MovieCast a Long Shadow
1959
as Sam Mullen
MovieThe Killer Shrews
1959
as Thorne Sherman
TVThe David Niven Show
1959
as Boland
MovieVerboten!
1959
as Sgt. David Brent
MovieRide Lonesome
1959
as Billy John
TVBlack Saddle
1959
as Ben Travers
TVRawhide
1959
as Willie Cain
TV77 Sunset Strip
1958
TVBat Masterson
1958
as Joe Best
TVBehind Closed Doors
1958
as Webb
TVThe Rifleman
1958
TVThe Texan
1958
TVBronco
1958
TVWanted: Dead or Alive
1958
as Stoner
MovieThe Naked and the Dead
1958
as Rhidges
MovieThe Left Handed Gun
1958
as Tom Folliard
MovieCole Younger, Gunfighter
1958
as Kit Caswell
MovieMan on the Prowl
1957
as Doug Gerhardt
TVTombstone Territory
1957
TVTrackdown
1957
TVPerry Mason
1957
as Allan Winford
TVHave Gun, Will Travel
1957
TVRichard Diamond, Private Detective
1957
as Jack Milhoan
MovieLast of the Badmen
1957
as Ted Hamilton
MovieHot Summer Night
1957
as Kermit
MovieThe Rack
1956
as Millard Chilson Cassidy
TVWest Point
1956
MovieCalling Homicide
1956
as Det. Arnie Arnhoff
MovieGaby
1956
as Jim
MovieForbidden Planet
1956
as Crewman (uncredited)
MovieCome Next Spring
1956
as Bill Jackson
TVAlfred Hitchcock Presents
1955
as Norman Frayne
TVFrontier
1955
TVCheyenne
1955
TVGunsmoke
1955
as Beal
MovieTop of the World
1955
as Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
MovieSeven Angry Men
1955
as Jason Brown
TVBuffalo Bill Jr.
1955
TVThe Millionaire
1955
as Fred Morgan
MovieThey Rode West
1954
as Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
TVClimax!
1954
as Shag
TVThe Lineup
1954
MovieThe Raid
1954
as Lt. Robinson
MovieReturn from the Sea
1954
as Barr
MovieThe Caine Mutiny
1954
as Lt. JG Jorgensen
MovieThe Yellow Tomahawk
1954
as Private Bliss
TVStories of the Century
1954
MovieRiders to the Stars
1954
as Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
Skip Taylor
1953
MovieCity of Bad Men
1953
as Deputy Gig (uncredited)
MovieColumn South
1953
as Primrose
MovieSeminole
1953
as Corp. Gerad
TVGeneral Electric Theater
1953
as Hardy Coulter
MovieFlat Top
1952
as Radio Operator
TVCavalcade of America
1952
TVHopalong Cassidy
1952
MovieMa and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952
as Marvin Johnson
MovieFrancis Goes to West Point
1952
as Corporal Ransom
MovieThe Battle at Apache Pass
1952
as Cpl. Hassett
MovieSteel Town
1952
as Joe Rakich
MovieThe Cimarron Kid
1952
as Bitter Creek Dalton
TVHallmark Hall of Fame
1951
TVSchlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
TVThe Adventures of Kit Carson
1951
MovieApache Drums
1951
as Bert Keon
MovieAir Cadet
1951
as Jerry Connell
MovieTarget Unknown
1951
as Sgt. Ralph Phelps
MovieKansas Raiders
1950
as Cole Younger
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Clem Wallace
TVThe Gene Autry Show
1950
MovieWinchester '73
1950
as Crater
MoviePeggy
1950
as Frank Addison
MovieI Was a Shoplifter
1950
MovieComanche Territory
1950
as Sam
MovieOne Way Street
1950
as Driver (uncredited)
