Acting credits
147
Prolific
Very extensive acting filmography.
Actor
James Best
Acting
Career Snapshot
ExplainedThese indicators come from TMDB. They are relative signals, not review ratings.
TMDB popularity
1.3
Low visibility
TMDB internal trend index. Higher usually means more searches and page activity now.
Movies: 71Series: 77Crew credits: 6
TMDB ID: 40185
IMDb ID: nm0078940
Known for: Acting
Born: July 26, 1926
Died: April 6, 2015
Age: 88
Place of birth: Powderly, Kentucky, USA
Gender: Male
Adult content flag: No
Career span: 1950 - 2021
Years active: 72
Average TMDB rating: 6.58
Wikidata: Q268084
Also known as
Jewel Franklin Guy • James K. Best • Jimmy Best • Jim Best
Other jobs
Writer (2)Associate Producer (1)Co-Writer (1)Director (1)Production Assistant (1)
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).
Photos
Movies
Movies
Movie credits linked with James Best.
4.7
Hollywood in the Atomic Age: Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!
as Self
2021 Movie
7.8
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
as Self (archive footage)
2013 Movie
5.8
The Sweeter Side of Life
as Paddy Kerrigan
2013 Movie
5.3
Return of the Killer Shrews
as Thorne Sherman
2012 Movie
6.0
Moondance Alexander
as McClancy
2007 Movie
4.9
Hot Tamale
as Hank Larson
2006 Movie
5.8
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
as Sgt. David Brent (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002 Movie
5.9
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
as Rosco P. Coltrane
2000 Movie
5.0
Death Mask
as Wilbur Johnson
1998 Movie
5.2
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
as Boss / Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
1997 Movie
6.3
Hooper
as Cully
1978 Movie
5.5
The End
as Pacemaker Patient
1978 Movie
6.8
Rolling Thunder
as Texan
1977 Movie
6.1
Nickelodeon
as Jim
1976 Movie
5.1
The Savage Bees
as Pellegrino
1976 Movie
5.1
Gator
Production Assistant
1976 Movie
6.1
Ode to Billy Joe
as Dewey Barksdale
1976 Movie
The Runaway Barge
as Bingo Washington
1975 Movie
6.3
Savages
as Sheriff Bert Hamilton
1974 Movie
7.5
Sounder
as Sheriff Charlie Young
1972 Movie
2.7
The Brain Machine
as Rev. Emory Neill
1972 Movie
4.7
Run, Simon, Run
as Henry Burroughs
1970 Movie
6.3
Firecreek
as Drew
1968 Movie
7.9
First to Fight
as Sergeant Carnavan
1967 Movie
Series
Series
Series credits linked with James Best.
7.0
CMT: Inside Fame
1 eps
2005 Series
8.1
E! True Hollywood Story
1 eps
1996 Series
6.0
B.L. Stryker
1 eps
1989 Series
7.5
In the Heat of the Night
1 eps
1988 Series
3.7
The Dukes
as Rosco Coltrane (voice) • 20 eps
1983 Series
7.0
Enos
1 eps
1980 Series
7.3
The Dukes of Hazzard
as Rosco P. Coltrane • 147 eps
1979 Series
7.7
Centennial
1 eps
1978 Series
5.0
The Manhunter
1 eps
1974 Series
7.2
Hawkins
as Sheriff John Early • 1 eps
1973 Series
6.2
The Mod Squad
as Clay Lynch • 1 eps
1968 Series
4.7
Lancer
1 eps
1968 Series
6.2
The Guns of Will Sonnett
2 eps
1967 Series
6.4
Felony Squad
2 eps
1966 Series
7.2
The Green Hornet
as Yale Barton • 1 eps
1966 Series
Hawk
1 eps
1966 Series
7.0
Honey West
as Vince Zale • 1 eps
1965 Series
7.0
Daniel Boone
as Jethro Wyatt • 1 eps
1964 Series
6.2
Flipper
1 eps
1964 Series
5.0
Redigo
1 eps
1963 Series
6.0
Burke's Law
as Tucson, 'The Cowboy' • 1 eps
1963 Series
7.2
The Fugitive
as Dan Murray • 1 eps
1963 Series
6.0
The Gallant Men
1 eps
1962 Series
7.7
Combat!
as Trenton • 1 eps
1962 Series