

James Best
Actor · Writer · ProducerFrom 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).
More details at TMDB
KNOWN FOR
FILMOGRAPHY
ACTOR73

Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
2021
Self

The Sweeter Side of Life
2013
Paddy Kerrigan

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013
Self (archive footage)

Return of the Killer Shrews
2012
Thorne Sherman

Moondance Alexander
2007
McClancy

Hot Tamale
2006
Hank Larson

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002
Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
2000
Rosco P. Coltrane

The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
1997
Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane

Death Mask
1995
Wilbur Johnson

Hooper
1978
Cully

The End
1978
Pacemaker Patient

Rolling Thunder
1977
Texan

Nickelodeon
1976
Jim

Ode to Billy Joe
1976
Dewey Barksdale

The Savage Bees
1976
Pellegrino

The Runaway Barge
1975
Bingo Washington

Savages
1974
Sheriff Bert Hamilton

The Brain Machine
1972
Rev. Emory Neill

Sounder
1972
Sheriff Charlie Young

Run, Simon, Run
1970
Henry Burroughs

Firecreek
1968
Drew

First to Fight
1967
Sergeant Carnavan

Three on a Couch
1966
Dr. Ben Mizer

Shenandoah
1965
Carter, Rebel Soldier

Black Spurs
1965
Ralph Elkins

The Quick Gun
1964
Scotty Wade

Shock Corridor
1963
Stuart

Black Gold
1962
Jericho Larkin

The Mountain Road
1960
Niergaard
- Aftermath
Aftermath
1960
Hardy Coulter

Ride Lonesome
1959
Billy John

The Killer Shrews
1959
Thorne Sherman

Verboten!
1959
Sgt. David Brent

Cast a Long Shadow
1959
Sam Mullen

The Left Handed Gun
1958
Tom Folliard

The Naked and the Dead
1958
Rhidges

Cole Younger, Gunfighter
1958
Kit Caswell

Hot Summer Night
1957
Kermit

Man on the Prowl
1957
Doug Gerhardt

Last of the Badmen
1957
Ted Hamilton

Calling Homicide
1956
Det. Arnie Arnhoff

The Rack
1956
Millard Chilson Cassidy

Gaby
1956
Jim

Come Next Spring
1956
Bill Jackson

Forbidden Planet
1956
Crewman (uncredited)

Top of the World
1955
Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)

Seven Angry Men
1955
Jason Brown

The Raid
1954
Lt. Robinson

The Yellow Tomahawk
1954
Private Bliss

The Caine Mutiny
1954
Lt. JG Jorgensen

Return from the Sea
1954
Barr

Riders to the Stars
1954
Dr. Sidney K. Fuller

They Rode West
1954
Lt. Finlay (uncredited)

Seminole
1953
Corp. Gerad

City of Bad Men
1953
Deputy Gig (uncredited)

Column South
1953
Primrose
- Skip Taylor
Skip Taylor
1953

The Cimarron Kid
1952
Bitter Creek Dalton

The Battle at Apache Pass
1952
Cpl. Hassett

Francis Goes to West Point
1952
Corporal Ransom

Steel Town
1952
Joe Rakich

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
1952
Marvin Johnson

Flat Top
1952
Radio Operator

Apache Drums
1951
Bert Keon

Target Unknown
1951
Sgt. Ralph Phelps

Air Cadet
1951
Jerry Connell

Winchester '73
1950
Crater

Comanche Territory
1950
Sam

Kansas Raiders
1950
Cole Younger

I Was a Shoplifter
1950

One Way Street
1950
Driver (uncredited)

Peggy
1950
Frank Addison






