James Best
Known for: Acting
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
Series
Perry Mason
Allan Winford
1957
Series
Perry Mason
Martin Potter
1957
Series
The Fugitive
Dan Murray
1963
Series
Bonanza
Sheriff Vern Schaler
1959
Series
The Andy Griffith Show
Jim Lindsey
1960
Series
The Rifleman
1958
Series
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Tom Carmody
1962
Series
The Twilight Zone
Jeff Myrtlebank
1959
Series
The Twilight Zone
Billy-Ben Turner
1959
Series
The Virginian
Curt Westley
1962
Series
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Series
Cheyenne
1955
Series
Daniel Boone
Jethro Wyatt
1964
Series
Rawhide
Willie Cain
1959
Series
Rawhide
Brock Quade
1959
Series
Burke's Law
Tucson, 'The Cowboy'
1963
Series
Climax!
Shag
1954
Series
Combat!
Trenton
1962
Series
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Stoner
1958
Series
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Luke Perry
1958
Series
The Dukes of Hazzard
Rosco P. Coltrane
1979
Series
Ben Casey
1961
Series
Gunsmoke
Beal
1955
Series
Gunsmoke
Charlie Noon
1955
Series
Bat Masterson
Joe Best
1958
Series
Bat Masterson
Danny Dakota
1958
Series
In the Heat of the Night
1988
Series
Hawaiian Eye
1959
Series
Laramie
1959
Series
77 Sunset Strip
1958
Series
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Jack Milhoan
1957
Series
Surfside 6
1960
Series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Norman Frayne
1955
Series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Hennessy
1955
Series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Bish Darby
1955
Series
The Rebel
Ted Evans
1959
Series
The Rebel
Abel Waares
1959
Series
The Millionaire
Fred Morgan
1955
Series
The Texan
1958
Series
Honey West
Vince Zale
1965
Series
The Guns of Will Sonnett
1967
Series
Felony Squad
1966
Series
Bronco
1958
Series
Tombstone Territory
1957
Series
The Mod Squad
Clay Lynch
1968
Series
Trackdown
1957
Series
The Gene Autry Show
1950
Series
Lancer
1968
Series
Flipper
1964
Series
Startime
Duke
1959
Series
The Green Hornet
Yale Barton
1966
Series
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
Jovan Wilanskov
1959
Series
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
Joe
1960
Series
Lock-Up
1959
Series
Centennial
1978
Series
Black Saddle
Ben Travers
1959
Series
The Adventures of Kit Carson
1951
Series
Cavalcade of America
1952
Series
Cavalcade of America
Harry
1952
Series
Cavalcade of America
Slate Morley
1952
Lux Video Theatre
Clem Wallace
1950
Series
The Manhunter
1974
Film
Forbidden Planet
Crewman (uncredited)
1956
Series
Men Into Space
1959
Series
Stagecoach West
1960
Series
Frontier
1955
Series
The Gallant Men
1962
Series
Temple Houston
Gotch
1963
Series
Hawkins
Sheriff John Early
1973
Series
B.L. Stryker
1989
Series
Stories of the Century
1954
Series
Behind Closed Doors
Webb
1958
Series
West Point
1956
Series
Hopalong Cassidy
1952
Series
General Electric True
1962
Series
Redigo
1963
Film
Hot Tamale
Hank Larson
2006
Series
Buffalo Bill Jr.
1955
Series
The Dukes
Rosco Coltrane (voice)
1983
Series
Enos
1980
Film
Winchester '73
Crater
1950
Series
Hawk
1966
Series
Whispering Smith
1961
Series
The Man and the Challenge
1959
Series
Michael Shayne
1960
Film
The Caine Mutiny
Lt. JG Jorgensen
1954
Film
Hooper
Cully
1978
Series
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Film
Sounder
Sheriff Charlie Young
1972
Film
Rolling Thunder
Texan
1977
Film
Shenandoah
Carter, Rebel Soldier
1965
Series
The Lineup
1954
Film
Nickelodeon
Jim
1976
Series
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
Series
Overland Trail
1960
Film
Firecreek
Drew
1968
Film
Ride Lonesome
Billy John
1959
Series
General Electric Theater
Hardy Coulter
1953
Film
The Left Handed Gun
Tom Folliard
1958
Film
The End
Pacemaker Patient
1978
Film
Verboten!
Sgt. David Brent
1959
Series
CMT: Inside Fame
2005
Film
Black Spurs
Ralph Elkins
1965
Pony Express
Bart Gentry
1960
Series
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
Series
The David Niven Show
Boland
1959
Film
The Quick Gun
Scotty Wade
1964
Film
The Battle at Apache Pass
Cpl. Hassett
1952
Film
Shock Corridor
Stuart
1963
Film
Moondance Alexander
McClancy
2007
Film
The Raid
Lt. Robinson
1954
Film
The Naked and the Dead
Rhidges
1958
Film
The Savage Bees
Pellegrino
1977
Film
The Yellow Tomahawk
Private Bliss
1954
Film
The Rack
Millard Chilson Cassidy
1956
Film
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
Rosco P. Coltrane
2000
Film
Three on a Couch
Dr. Ben Mizer
1966
Film
Cast a Long Shadow
Sam Mullen
1959
Film
The Brain Machine
Rev. Emory Neill
1972
Film
I Was a Shoplifter
1950
Film
The Mountain Road
Niergaard
1960
Film
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
Self
2021
Film
The Sweeter Side of Life
Paddy Kerrigan
2013
Film
The Killer Shrews
Thorne Sherman
1959
Film
Kansas Raiders
Cole Younger
1950
Film
Air Cadet
Jerry Connell
1951
Film
Apache Drums
Bert Keon
1951
Film
First to Fight
Sergeant Carnavan
1967
Film
The Cimarron Kid
Bitter Creek Dalton
1952
Film
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Marvin Johnson
1952
Film
City of Bad Men
Deputy Gig (uncredited)
1953
Film
Seminole
Corp. Gerad
1953
Film
Hot Summer Night
Kermit
1957
Film
One Way Street
Driver (uncredited)
1950
Film
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
1997
Film
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
Self (archive footage)
2013
Film
Peggy
Frank Addison
1950
Film
Top of the World
Col. French's Orderly (uncredited)
1955
Film
Seven Angry Men
Jason Brown
1955
Film
Francis Goes to West Point
Corporal Ransom
1952
Film
Return of the Killer Shrews
Thorne Sherman
2012
Film
They Rode West
Lt. Finlay (uncredited)
1954
Film
Target Unknown
Sgt. Ralph Phelps
1951
Film
Riders to the Stars
Dr. Sidney K. Fuller
1954
Film
Gaby
Jim
1956
Film
Comanche Territory
Sam
1950
Film
Run, Simon, Run
Henry Burroughs
1970
Skip Taylor
1953
Film
The Runaway Barge
Bingo Washington
1975
Film
Come Next Spring
Bill Jackson
1956
Film
Column South
Primrose
1953
Film
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
Kit Caswell
1958
Film
Last of the Badmen
Ted Hamilton
1957
Film
Flat Top
Radio Operator
1952
Film
Ode to Billy Joe
Dewey Barksdale
1976
Film
Steel Town
Joe Rakich
1952
Film
Savages
Sheriff Bert Hamilton
1974
Film
Death Mask
Wilbur Johnson
1995
Film
Calling Homicide
Det. Arnie Arnhoff
1956
Film
Man on the Prowl
Doug Gerhardt
1957
Film
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
Film
Return from the Sea
Barr
1954
Aftermath
Hardy Coulter
1960
Film
Black Gold
Jericho Larkin
1962