This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
James Best | |
---|---|
![]() Best in 1964 | |
Born | Jewel Franklin Guy July 26, 1926 Powderly, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | April 6, 2015 Hickory, North Carolina, U.S. | (aged 88)
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1949-2013 |
Television | The Dukes of Hazzard |
Spouses |
|
Children | 3 Janeen Best (Damian) |
Relatives | Don and Phil Everly (cousins) Michael Damian (son-in-law) |
Jewel Franklin Guy (July 26, 1926 – April 6, 2015), known professionally as James Best, was an American television, film, stage, and voice actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor, and musician. During a career that spanned more than 60 years, he performed not only in feature films but also in scores of television series, as well as appearing on various country music programs and talk shows. Television audiences, however, perhaps most closely associate Best with his role as the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the action-comedy series The Dukes of Hazzard, which originally aired on CBS between 1979 and 1985. He reprised the role in 1997 and 2000 for the made-for-television movies The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000).