Posted on 04/07/2015 3:24:56 AM PDT by lowbridge
James Best, whose prolific career included 83 movies and 600 TV shows but is best remembered for his role as Rosco P. Coltrane, the bumbling sheriff of Hazzard, died Monday night in Hickory.
Best was 88. He died in hospice after a brief illness of complications from pneumonia, said Steve Latshaw, a longtime friend and Hollywood colleague.
Best’s career included roles in such movies as “The Caine Mutiny” with Humphrey Bogart and “Shenandoah” with Jimmy Stewart. After television came to the fore in the 1950s, Best found roles on popular shows like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”
But it was in “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a rural comedy that ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985, that Best became a national figure. As Hazzard’s ever-frustrated lawman catching the dickens from a demanding Boss Hogg, he found himself constantly in pursuit – and ever outwitted – by Luke and Bo Duke in their Dodge Charger “General Lee.”
“I acted the part as good as I could,” said Best in a 2009 interview with The Charlotte Obsserer. “Rosco – let’s face it – was a charmer. It was a fun thing.”
Best and his wife Dorothy moved to the Bethlehem community near Hickory in 2006 from Orlando. At their home on Lake Hickory, he did the thing in life he liked the best – fishing, said Latshaw. He also wrote a book about his career as an actor, writer, producer and director, “Best in Hollywood: The Good, The Bad and the Beautiful.”
“Only thing that makes me sad about having so little time left,” Best wrote in the book, “is leaving the people I love and those who love me.
(Excerpt) Read more at charlotteobserver.com ...
I’m saddened by this. “Dukes” was very much a staple in my family household on Friday nights back then. Shame there are not many shows (if any) that all of the family can sit down and watch and have fun.
I never watched a single episode of Hazzard. It was brain poison. But I really like Shenandoah — I’ll have to re-watch and keep an eye out for Best.
When he was on “Dukes”, he made a personal appearance at Opryland and I got to go up on stage with him (I was about 6 or so, this was around 1980). I made such a fool of myself they just about had to drag me off the stage with a hook (I didn’t want to leave !). RIP, Mr. Best.
Dukes of hazzard was airing when I was a kid. I was a huge fan. Granted it “jumped the sgark” a few times in later seasons. But give it a chance.
Sounds like a nice childhood memory.
RIP.
You know, I don’t think I’ve seen that show even once.
Sorry, not enough hours or brain cells left in my lifetime to spend one on that drek.
Like it or not, the Dukes of Hazzard was a very conservative show.
It was about real Americans fighting a corrupt and self-serving government.
And Daisy Dukes. Heh, heh.
RIP, Roscoe.
Peace to his family.
Boss Hogg was the funniest character on that show and Roscoe was #2 IMO. Just the sight of little Boss Hogg in that white suit, hat and cigar was sooo funny— the southern accent, facial expressions.. Some darn good actors those two were.
Agreed. It became too cartoonish in nature after moving to California for shooting, etc. Looking back, I would have liked it to have stayed shooting on location in Conyers/Covington, Georgia. Also, it would have been neat to have made Rosco Coltrane into a character that may have been a tad corrupt, but in numerous instances a good lawman that you would have found yourself rooting for (given it was so easy to do so with Bo and Luke and Daisy). Many have mentioned that the Rosco character underutilized Best’s talents as an actor, so this is why I have had these thoughts on the show.
He was in so many movies and TV shows! Wonderful in Dukes of course but he played everything from comedy to drama.
Thank you James!
RIP
Do a Youtube search of Rosco P. Coltrane. James Best was good in dramas. But he was also a really good comic actor. If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't have watched The Dukes of Hazzard at all.
Of course, having Catherine Bach in the cast didn't hurt either!
The harsh censorship of the movie industry did it's best in the beginning (the Petri's never slept in the same bed and ther Cramden's never slept ... f'rinstance) to keep us outwardly Victorian, but the '60's turned us all upside down
God forgive me I was a devil's disciple and advocate.
That was a funny show and a staple for us. R.I.P. Deputy.
He was also Burt Reynolds’ sidekick in “Hooper”, a fun movie from 1978 about the life of a stuntman, which also featured Sally Field, Adam West, Brian Keith, Terry Bradshaw, and Jan-Michael Vincent.
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