James Best
Acting
🎂 1926-07-26
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).
Cast credits(163)
Allan Winford
1957
Martin Potter
1957
Sheriff Vern Schaler
1959
Jim Lindsey
1960
1958
1957
Dan Murray
1963
Shag
1954
Curt Westley
1962
Jeff Myrtlebank
1959
Billy-Ben Turner
1959
Willie Cain
1959
Brock Quade
1959
Jethro Wyatt
1964
1955
Stoner
1958
Luke Perry
1958
Trenton
1962
Beal
1955
Charlie Noon
1955
Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
1963
1988
1961
1959
Tom Carmody
1962
1958
1958
1959
Fred Morgan
1955
Ted Evans
1959
Abel Waares
1959
Joe Best
1958
Danny Dakota
1958
1960
1966
Ben Travers
1959
Norman Frayne
1955
Hennessy
1955
Bish Darby
1955
Rosco P. Coltrane
1979
1958
1959
1957
1964
1968
Jack Milhoan
1957
Yale Barton
1966
1967
Clem Wallace
1950
Joe
1960
Vince Zale
1965
1957
Jovan Wilanskov
1959
1950
Clay Lynch
1968
1952
Harry
1952
Slate Morley
1952
1959
1978
1952
Crewman (uncredited)
1956
1974
Webb
1958
1956
Sheriff John Early
1973
1959
1955
1989
1960
1951
1960
Self (archive footage)
2013
1980
Lt. JG Jorgensen
1954
Kermit
1957
1962
Hank Larson
2006
Rosco P. Coltrane
2000
Sergeant Carnavan
1967
Rosco Coltrane (voice)
1983
Tom Folliard
1958
Rev. Emory Neill
1972
1963
Scotty Wade
1964
1951
Billy John
1959
Crater
1950
Jericho Larkin
1962
Drew
1968
Jim
1976
1954
Cully
1978
Self
2021
Ted Hamilton
1957
Carter, Rebel Soldier
1965
Kit Caswell
1958
Stuart
1963
Hardy Coulter
1953
1955
Bingo Washington
1975
Ralph Elkins
1965
Jason Brown
1955
Thorne Sherman
2012
Texan
1977
Thorne Sherman (archive footage)
2004
Bert Keon
1951
Cole Younger
1950
Primrose
1953
Sam Mullen
1959
Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
1997
Sheriff Bert Hamilton
1974
Deputy Gig (uncredited)
1953
1951
Pacemaker Patient
1978
1960
Millard Chilson Cassidy
1956
Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
1962
Dr. Ben Mizer
1966
Paddy Kerrigan
2013
1954
Frank Addison
1950
Lt. Robinson
1954
Thorne Sherman
1959
1966
Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
1955
Driver (uncredited)
1950
Hardy Coulter
1960
Jim
1956
Sgt. David Brent
1959
Corporal Ransom
1952
1959
1961
Bitter Creek Dalton
1952
Cpl. Hassett
1952
McClancy
2007
Sheriff Charlie Young
1972
Corp. Gerad
1953
Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
1954
1950
Sgt. Ralph Phelps
1951
1996
Marvin Johnson
1952
Rhidges
1958
Det. Arnie Arnhoff
1956
Doug Gerhardt
1957
Private Bliss
1954
Sam
1950
Niergaard
1960
Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
1954
Boland
1959
Pellegrino
1976
2005
1953
Joe Rakich
1952
Barr
1954
Dewey Barksdale
1976
Jerry Connell
1951
Henry Burroughs
1970
Bart Gentry
1960
Bill Jackson
1956
Wilbur Johnson
1998
