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 ...
he did an episode of the Twilight Zone where he seemed to come back from the dead...
He was in 3 Twilight Zone episodes.
Who could forget the 1959 epic The Killer Shrews!
I pressed my GF at the time to wear Daisy duke shorts. She told me to GTH. Now I’ve been married (not to her) for 40 yrs; last I heard she’s divorced and living w/her ‘partner’. Life is funny and I am happy.
Watching a DOH rerun as an adult is tedious, but it was great entertainment for us as youngsters. If we behaved ourselves, the reward was being able to stay up to watch The Incredible Hulk, which came on after DOH. My younger brother and I still smile when we see anything related to DOH—fond memories, indeed. RIP, James.
Sad to hear. I saw Best and his wife at a show a few years ago, and chatted with him about “The Killer Shrews” (1959), an old favorite of mine, schlockiness and all. Love that ridiculous film. Always brings back warm memories of weekend late-shows on tv.
He had a really long and prolific career, appearing in practically every drama/western series around, back in the late-1950s and 1960s. He could play such a nice, goofy, likeable sort, but also a mean villain. Effective in both.
Sorry to hear that.
MOST of us at FR have an overabundance of brain cells, so we can indulge ourselves in a little light hearted "drek". The fact that you realize you are deficient in brain cells is good. Most people in your situation spend their time over at DU, rather than here.
My son just got a Catahoula puppy and named it Roscoe P Coltrane
Left out that cj7.
What a wonderful memory. Sounds like it left an indulable imprint on your life. RIP, JB.
I’ll always remember Ole Jimmy as the white trash thief that had William Devane’s hand stuck in the garbage disposal in “Rolling Thunder”. He “was gonna get those silver dollars” alright. I was so happy when he got his intestines blown out in the Mexican bordello at the end of the movie!
And some of you may remember the “ROSCOE’S MOMMY” phase I went thru a few years back. Yep, it was inspired by the one, the only, Roscoe P. Coltrane.
So raise a glass of ‘shine to Roscoe; he’s with Boss Hogg now, still chasing the Duke boys and trying to learn how to count past 10 without taking off a shoe.
ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY
ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY ROSCOE’S MOMMY
You’re not missing much.
My children loved that show.
Southern Buffoonery at its best.
Keep looking at those pictures of her because the last I saw of her photos she was “looking her age.”
It was what it was. And I get why some people would not like it. But for its intended demographic, a fun show.
Thanks for taking the time to provide the description Paps.
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