James Best net worth is $500,000. Also know about James Best bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

James Best Wiki Biography

James Best was born as Jewel Franklin Guy on the 26 July 1926 in Powderly, Kentucky, USA, and passed away on 6th April 2015 in Hickory, North Carolina, USA. He was best known as an actor, remembered for his roles in Westerns such as “Seven Angry Men” (1955), “The Quick Gun” (1964), “Ride Lonesome” (1959), etc, and as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the TV sitcom “The Dukes Of Hazzard” (1979-1985). He was also an acting coach and writer.

Have you ever wondered how rich James Best was? Sources estimated that Best’s net worth was over $500,000, with the main source of this amount of money being, of course, the entertainment industry. Another source was his working as a teacher, and selling his book also added to his net worth.

James Best was the son of Lark and Lena Guy, but unfortunately after mother’s death, as a three-year-old boy, he was sent to an orphan, and was adopted by Armen and Essa Best, who raised him in Corydon, Indiana. During World War II, he served in the US Army and later he joined the Military Police. At that time he began acting, as he became a member of a special services unit of actors, which performed plays around Europe.

However, his first appearance on screen was in the film “One Way Street” (1950), but his role was uncredited. Nevertheless, he continued his career, and soon earned a role in the film “Comanche Territory” in the same year. During the 1950s he built his career slowly, appearing in films and TV series such as “Seven Angry Man” (1955), “Come Net Spring” (1956), “Crossroads” (1956), “Cavalcade Of America” (1953-1956), “Hot Summer Night” (1957), “The Left Handed Gun” (1958), and others. In the 1960s, he continued at the same pace, adding number of film and TV roles to his name, and by that increasing his overall net worth. Some of the titles include “Rahwide” (1963), “The Green Hornet” (1968), “Firecreeck” (1968), “Gunsmoke” (1963-1969), and other roles which only added to his net worth.

Although he was quite represented in the film industry during the 1950s and 1960s, his first big role came in 1979, when he was chosen for the role of sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the TV series “The Dukes Of Hazzard” (1979-1985). He reprised his role in several sequels of the TV series “The Dukes” (1983), which was later made into films “The Dukes Of Hazzard: Reunion” (1997), and “The Dukes Of Hazzard: Hazzard In Hollywood” (2000). He also gave voice to his character in the video games “The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home” (1999), and “The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee” (2004).

To speak further of his ventures in the entertainment industry, James appeared in such titles as “Hot Tamale” (2006), “Moondance Alexander” (2007), “Return Of The Killer Shrews” (2012), and his last role in the film “The Sweeter Side OF Life” (2013).

Overall, James was a highly respected and successful actor, appearing in over 180 film and TV titles, in a career which lasted seven decades, and making it the main source of his net worth. Thanks to his working on an episode in the series “Sweet, Sweet Blues”, he won the Crystal Reel Award for Best Actor.

Additionally to his successful career as an actor, in 1964 James founded his own acting school in Los Angeles, California, where he has taught students such as Quentin Tarantino, Roger Miller, and Glen Campbell among many others. Later, in 1971, he moved the acting school to Mississippi, where he became an acting coach of drama at the University of Mississippi. His net worth was rising.

Apart from his acting and teaching career, James was known as an artist and painter as well. Besides that, he was also a writer, who published in 2009 his autobiographical book, entitled “Best In Hollywood: The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful”. All these also added a lot to his overall wealth.

Speaking about his personal life, James Best was married thrice, but there is no any information about his first marriage. His second marriage was with Jobee Ayers from 1959 to 1977, and the couple had two daughters. Later, he married Dorothy Collier, with whom remained until his death. He died at the age of 88 from complications of pneumonia.

IMDB Wikipedia African Orthodox Church Billy Joel Blind Willie McTell Bogalusa Boogie Boss Hogg Clifton Chenier Gloria Gaynor James Best John Coltrane Library of Congress Moonrunners National Recording Preservation Board National Recording Registry Roger Miller Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane The Dukes The Dukes of Hazzard

James Best Quick Info

James Best Trademarks

1. The role of Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979).
2. High-pitched, exasperated voice.
3. Roles in Westerns.
4. Southern accent.

James Best Quotes

• [Who said in 2006 about his painting, while starring in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)]: Oh yeah, I had a captive audience. Even before the show, I used to make pictures with Burt Reynolds and Jimmy Stewart and all those people, and I’d go in my dressing room for lunch and paint. Burt Reynolds would buy a new one of my paintings every time he got a new girlfriend. So I’d say Burt, aren’t you tired of that girl yet?
• I went to Rome, Paris and these places, and see people come up and go ‘Kew-kew-kew-kew,’ Rosco.
• [About auditioning for one of the starring roles on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)]: Well, I said, ‘Well, I’ll do what I used to do with my little girls,’ when they were little, I’d go, ‘Kew-kew-kew-kew,’ I’m going to get to you. Well, they fell off the couch, laughing, and I was the first one they signed.
• [In 1998]: I created a character that millions of people still love. I brought something to this show that no one else likely could have. I didn’t get a cut of the merchandising on a show that inspired thousands of products, and even though you can still watch me play Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane every day on television, the checks from that job stopped coming a long time ago.
• [In 2014]: I’ve done 87 feature pictures and I’ve done over 600 television shows. I worked with Jimmy Stewart. I worked with Henry Fonda. I worked, you know, Humphrey Bogart, you know? You name them, I’ve worked with them. And it’s really marvelous to have done this during my span, and I haven’t finished! Lately, I’ve made 4 or 5 movies with my daughter and her husband at Hallmark. My daughter writes the scripts, so she is a terrific producer-writer, and her husband is a very good director, so they keep this old man busy. We live in North Carolina now, and we are going to be performing in On Golden Pond here in about 2-2 and a half weeks, and we’re very excited about that. It’s funny–my wife is playing my daughter!
• [In 2006]: Actually the southern landscapes. I’m an old country boy I was born in Kentucky. I found out the Everly Brothers were my first cousins. I was adopted. I don’t know why I can’t sing. Thank God I can paint.
• [About writing his own book : “Best in Hollywood”]: I decided to write this book to share my own personal journey living the American Dream. I hope it can inspire, as well as provide an honest, historical depiction of how Hollywood once was . . . and perhaps could be again some day.
• [on reprising his role in the movie Return of the Killer Shrews (2012)]: Well, it was funny, because I did the original The Killer Shrews as a favor. I made a movie with Sammy Ford, who was friends with a special effects man, Ray Kellogg, who wanted to direct his own picture. And we looked at the original’s script, and he didn’t have hardly any money whatsoever, but I did him a favor by acting in it. Ken Curtis, of course, was producing it from the start. I like Ken, and he wanted me to do it, so I went down there to Texas where we shot this thing. I didn’t realize it was so cheap. I mean, it was really cheap. For me it was a blast, but it was so bad! I think it was voted the worst picture of the year at the time. And then it caught on as a drive-in cult film, and believe it or not, after so many years I noticed that it was playing all over the place. Somebody colorized it and The Killer Shrews became a little cult film. Steve Latshaw directed and produced a lot of little horror films that turned out to be very successful. And he said to me “why don’t we do a sequel to The Killer Shrews!” and laughed. I said “Are you kidding? That was the worst movie that I’ve ever made!” And we kept talking about it through the years and, you know, 50 years later we decided that we were willing do it! So we got together and we wrote a script and I called John Schneider, who of course everybody knows John from the Dukes of Hazzard, where he played Bo Duke, and we got Bruce Davidson who starred in Willard, and also we got Rick Hurst who was in Dukes of Hazzard as Cletus, and so we had a fun cast. So we decided to shoot our little movie in North Carolina, and we did, and we got a beautiful production out of it. We showed it several times in different drive-in movie places, and the public really liked it. Then we put it on the web at KillerShrewsMovie.com and we’ve had really good reactions to the picture, and so we’re very excited about it. Return of the Killer Shrews is a tiny sequel. I mean, we didn’t do a real slasher type of horror film. It was more of a “come and see it and we’ll scare you and make you laugh” kind of movie, and we’re so proud of it.
• [In 2011]: They put the camera practically in my mouth and said we want to introduce you to your brother and it was… it was one of my brothers I’d never met.
• Kentucky holds a special place in my heart.
• I just kept painting. I paint every day now and have sold some to Europe, and I do commission paintings. I paint Southern landscapes and some still-lives. What I love to paint mostly is old barns and ponds and creeks that I might conjure up in my mind.
• I started painting when I was in high school.
• [on his feelings towards aging and death] The only thing that makes me sad about having so little time left is leaving the people I love and those who love me. There are also films and other projects that I want to get done, and there are always fish that need catching.
• [on getting into trouble while under contract with Universal Pictures] Well, actually I didn’t make a habit of doing that, because I heard, if . . . well, you’re not supposed to take the girls that are “under contract”. I made a mistake, she was beautiful, she’s been on Look Magazine and I was honored to go out with her, but she was a blabbermouth and she came back to the studio, and everybody said, “You were out with this and you heard? Well, how did you find out?”. I said, “She was taking everybody, we had six-month options and I’ve been there for two years. I had three first features unreleased and all of a sudden, they called me . . . my option came up and I said, ‘Well, I want a raise’, and he said, ‘No, you stay on the same salary or we’re going to dump you.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding, of course!’ I got three features unreleased and they said, ‘We’re serious!’
• [in 2013] I did meet The Everly Brothers once and we talked for awhile. Then we figured out we were first cousins! My late mother was the sister of [Don Everly and Phil Everly]’s father, Ike Everly.
• [on Sorrell Booke] Scenes with Boss Hogg were 90% ad-libbed. He was such a professional.
• [in 2012, about playing the guitar for his guest-starring role on The Andy Griffith Show (1960)] I’m not in the habit of lying, and yes, it’s really important and they called me and say, “Can you play the guitar?”. I said, “Are you kidding? I have two guitars” and I got over on the set and this is the music and I said, “I can’t play that”. They said, “You lied, you could play the guitar”. I said, “No, I didn’t lie. I said, ‘I have two guitars’.”
• [in 2010, about his painting] I do mostly Southern landscapes. I do beautiful old barns that are falling down, and beautiful trees reflecting in the water. My lovely wife Dorothy and I travel quite a bit, so I take pictures of different things that inspire me to come home, when I come home here in North Carolina, into my art studio and paint these things. I put them on my web page and I’m proud to say that I’m selling paintings all over the world now. Some of them are commissioned. But I try to price my paintings in such a way that the average person can afford them. They make good Christmas gifts. It’s a wonderful pastime for me, and it’s been very profitable.
• [in 2009, about his role as Rosco Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)] I acted the part, as good as I could. Rosco, let’s face it, was a charmer. It was a fun thing.
• [on his early career] Well, I was very lucky, because I was under contract with Universal Studios for two years, and after I got out of there, I got up with Gene Autry and his series. So I was working constantly.
• When I was putting the “Best of Hollywood” book together, I sat down and added up just the list of Westerns I’ve done, and it came to well over 200.
• [on his favorite The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) episode] What I really enjoyed was the episode where Rosco thinks he inherits a million dollars and makes Boss Hogg his deputy. That was a fun, fun show. And then the other show that I enjoyed, I got to play a dual role, where I play a guy who actually has his face built like Rosco and he’s trying to imitate Rosco. So I actually play Rosco two different ways. That one was fun. But I’ll be very honest with you. Almost every show that I worked, it was a blessing. I worked, of course, mostly with Boss Hogg. Sorrell Booke [Boss Hogg] spoke five languages. He was a brilliant actor, and he let me ad lib all over the place, and he would go along with it.
• [on Norman Lloyd turning 100 in 2014] I had the honor to have been directed by Norman in [The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Jar (1964)]. Having worked with hundreds of directors in my career, I found very few that had Norman’s qualities. He was most kind, gracious and patient with his actors. He is in all respects a complete gentleman in his personal life and I found it a genuine pleasure just to be in the presence of such a talented man. I am also doubly honored to consider him my friend. We are so blessed to have such a man among us for so long.

James Best Important Facts

• Up until his death, his ex-The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) co-star, John Schneider referred to him as: Jimmie.
• He was cremated. His ashes were given to his family.
• Had appeared in every episode of The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), except for 5 episodes, temporarily during season two, over a dispute regarding the dressing rooms.
• Just before his death, he along with his longtime friend Robert Fuller attended the 100th Birthday Party of their dear friend, Norman Lloyd, in Los Angeles, California.
• James Best passed away on April 6, 2015, at age 88, six days after Cynthia Lennon, and within four months of seven television legends, also born in 1926, either aged 88 or 89: Robert H. Schuller, Roger Mayer, Stan Freberg, Verne Gagne, Betsy Palmer, Bud Yorkin and Elisabeth Elliot Gren.
• His former The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) co-star, John Schneider, had worked with him on two different shows: CMT Cribs (2009), in 2010, and Return of the Killer Shrews (2012) in 2012, where Best reprised his role, a half-century ago.
• Was a liberal conservative.
• Lifelong friend of Robert Fuller, who has a birthday 3 days after him, and is 7 years Best’s junior.
• Met Robert Fuller on the sixth episode of Laramie (1959). The two developed a 55+ year friendship until Best’s death in 2015.
• Ex-boyfriend of Jeanne Cooper – his son-in-law Michael Damian’s acting mentor.
• The James Best Theatre Center was located in Toluca Lake, CA, on Riverside Drive (at the southwest corner of Mariota) in the upstairs rear portion of the Honey Baked Ham building. The primary purpose of the center was to teach actors how to act for motion pictures and television and to provide an understanding of what the camera “sees”.
• As of April 2010, his Facebok page said that he had moved from Charlotte to Hickory, NC.
• It was Best’s idea to bring his real-life dog on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), with him. He named her ‘Flash’.
• He had 9 hobbies: sailing, painting, fishing, writing plays, poetry, riding horses, traveling, karate and playing guitars.
• Graduated from Corydon Central High School in Corydon, Indiana, in 1944.
• Is also a fan of Ron Howard’s movies.
• Is a fan of the following shows: Sanford and Son (1972), The Golden Girls (1985), Two and a Half Men (2003), Boston Legal (2004), Diagnosis Murder (1993), Matlock (1986) (which featured his best friend Andy Griffith), Barnaby Jones (1973), Quincy M.E. (1976), The Untouchables (1959), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Kojak (1973) and The Rockford Files (1974).
• Began his career as a contract player for Universal in 1949.
• One of the jobs he had prior to becoming an actor was as a bagger at a Kroger’s supermarket.
• When he guest-starred on one of the three episodes of Laramie (1959), the writers jokingly created the name of Johnny Best, whose character was named after him.
• Met James Drury on an episode of The Virginian (1962), where they became best friends.
• Was a lifelong friend with Andy Griffith until Griffith’s death on July 3, 2012. Best first met him on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show (1960), and would later attend Mayberry Days with him.
• His adoptive father, Armen Neely Best, died on June 1, 1984. He lived to be age 87.
• Best friends with Denver Pyle from 1958, until his passing on Christmas Day, 1997.
• Close friend of Sorrell Booke.
• Met Denver Pyle when both worked in The Left Handed Gun (1958). Some 21 years later he would co-star opposite Pyle on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), in which Pyle played the patriarch of the Duke family.
• His adoptive mother, Essa Knowland Best, died on March 30, 1988. She lived to be age 92.
• Friends with: Robert Fuller, John Smith, James Drury, Doug McClure, Adam West, Clu Gulager, Denver Pyle, Denny Miller, Brian Keith, Ann Doran, Gy Waldron, Sorrell Booke, Sonny Shroyer, James Arness, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor, Alex Cord, Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts, Robert Horton, Don Collier, Claude Akins, Eric Fleming, Lee Marvin, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Norman Lloyd, James Garner, Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Nancy Stafford, Dan Haggerty, Peggy Rea, Bob Hastings, Robert Conrad and Dabbs Greer.
• Acting mentor and friends of Tom Wopat, John Schneider and Catherine Bach.
• Best known by the public for his starring role as Sheriff P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979).
• In The Dukes of Hazzard: The Dukes in Hollywood (1984), Roscoe (Best) and Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) are discussing who should play them in a fictional movie about Hazzard County. Roscoe picks Burt Reynolds. Reynolds was a former acting student of Best, and the two had been friends for many years. Reynolds later played “Boss Hogg” in the The Dukes of Hazzard (2005).
• Before she took up acting, Lindsay Wagner babysat for Best’s children. It was Best who encouraged Wagner to take acting lessons and, in effect, kick-started her career.
• He formed the first school to teach actors motion picture technique in the 1970s. He taught in Hollywood for 25 years and worked with such stars as Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Gary Busey, Teri Garr, Lindsay Wagner, Farrah Fawcett and Quentin Tarantino.
• Moved to Florida in 1987 and taught on campus at the University of Central Florida. He was also appointed to the Advisory Council for the Motion Picture, Television, and Recording Industry of Florida. In 1992 he was the recipient of Florida’s “Crystal Reel Award” for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, for an episode of In the Heat of the Night (1988) with Carroll O’Connor.
• He and wife Dorothy Best, along with Kevin Lang, formed their own production company, Best Friend Films. The company specializes in high-definition production, featuring the Panasonic Varicam, with a Pro 35 lens adapter, which enables them to use Panavision 35mm film lenses on a digital camera. They also feature an HD online edit suite, making them a “one-stop shop in HD production” for the independent producer.
• In the mid 1970s he decided to take a semi-retirement, and became an artist-in-residence at the University of Mississippi. During his two years there, he taught Motion Picture technique and Drama; directed four plays, established the Mississippi Film Commission and was elected to the University’s Hall of Fame.
• He was the sixth of seven children. His mother died when he was three and he was taken to an orphanage when his Kentucky-born coal-mining father, an alcoholic, could no longer keep the family together. He was adopted at age 5 by Armen and Essa Best of Indiana.
• The son of a coal miner.
• Served in the US Army as a Military Policeman in Germany after World War II.
• Has a black belt in karate.
• Brother-in-law of John Collier.
• Father-in-law of Michael Damian.
• Director Quentin Tarantino has said that the work of Best “taught me how to act”. Ironically, when Tarantino appeared in a 1990s Broadway revival of the play “Wait Until Dark”, he received some of his worst acting reviews ever.
• Father of Janeen Damian.
• Cousin of singers Don Everly and Phil Everly.
• His billing for Three on a Couch (1966) read: “Introducing James Best”, despite the fact that he had been in movies for 16 years and had appeared in over 30 films.

James Best Filmography