James Best
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
Acting
2006
asHank Larson
1968
asDrew
1970
asHenry Burroughs
1965
asCarter, Rebel Soldier
1977
asTexan
1963
asStuart
1998
asWilbur Johnson
1959
asBilly John
2007
asMcClancy
1950
asCrater
1958
asTom Folliard
1952
asBitter Creek Dalton
1959
asThorne Sherman
1958
asRhidges
1978
asCully
1953
asCorp. Gerad
1956
asDet. Arnie Arnhoff
1956
asMillard Chilson Cassidy
1951
asBert Keon
2002
asSgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
1959
asSgt. David Brent
1972
asRev. Emory Neill
1950
asSam
1957
asKermit
1950
asCole Younger
1960
asNiergaard
1964
asScotty Wade
1956
asJim
1997
asBoss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
2000
asRosco P. Coltrane
1957
asDoug Gerhardt
1958
asKit Caswell
1950
as
2012
asThorne Sherman
1950
asDriver (uncredited)
1976
asJim
1974
asSheriff Bert Hamilton
1959
asSam Mullen
1955
asCol. French's Orderly (uncredited)
2013
asPaddy Kerrigan
1978
asPacemaker Patient
1962
asJericho Larkin
1951
asSgt. Ralph Phelps
1953
asDeputy Gig (uncredited)
1976
asDewey Barksdale
1956
asBill Jackson
1957
asTed Hamilton
1966
asDr. Ben Mizer
1951
asJerry Connell
1972
asSheriff Charlie Young
1952
asCpl. Hassett
1960
asHardy Coulter
1956
asCrewman (uncredited)
1954
asLt. Robinson
1967
asSergeant Carnavan
1975
asBingo Washington
1965
asRalph Elkins
1954
asPrivate Bliss
2021
asSelf
1954
asLt. JG Jorgensen
1954
asBarr
2004
asThorne Sherman (archive footage)
1952
asCpl. Ransom
1950
asFrank Addison
1955
asJason Brown
1953
asPrimrose
1952
asJoe Rakich
1954
asDr. Sidney K. Fuller
1952
asMarvin Johnson
1976
asPellegrino
1953
as
1954
asLt. Finlay (uncredited)
asJim Lindsey
as
as
as
asTucson, 'The Cowboy'
as
as
as
asJeff Myrtlebank
asSheriff John Early
as
as
as
asBeal
asAllan Winford
asTrenton
asHardy Coulter
as
as
asasBilly-Ben Turner
asNorman Frayne
as
as
as
asWillie Cain
as
asRosco Coltrane (voice)
asJethro Wyatt
asDan Murray
asFred Morgan
asCurt Westley
as
asasClem Wallace
as
as
asJack Milhoan
asShag
as
as
as
as
asBen Travers
as
asStoner
as
asTed Evans
asJoe Best
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
as
asVince Zale
asas 
asBoland
as
as
as
as
asasBart Gentry
as
asJovan Wilanskov
as
as
as
as
asWebb
asYale Barton
as
asJoe
asRosco P. Coltrane
asBrock Quade
asCharlie Noon
asHarry
asSlate Morley
asLuke Perry
asAbel Waares
asMartin Potter
asDanny Dakota
asHennessy
asBish Darby
asSheriff Vern Schaler
asTom Carmody
Production
1978
as
1976
asCrew
Directing
as 
