Jewel Franklin Guy (July 26, 1926 â€" 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).Best was born on July 26, 1926, in Powderly, Kentucky, to Lark
and Lena Guy. His mother was the sister of Ike Everly, the father of
the pop duo The Everly Brothers. After his mother died of tuberculosis
in 1929, then three-year-old James was sent to live in an orphanage.
He was later adopted by Armen Best (1897â€"1984) and his wife, Essa
Myrtle (née Knowland; 1896â€"1988) and went to live with them in
Corydon, Indiana.Best served in the United States Army in World War
II, training in 1944 in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a gunner on a B-17
bomber; but by the time he completed his training the war had almost
ended, so he was assigned to the army's law enforcement section. In
the military police, as an "MP", Best served in war-torn Germany
immediately after the Nazi government's surrender in May 1945. While
stationed in Germany, Best soon transferred from the military police
to an army unit of actors, who traveled around Europe performing plays
for troops. Those experiences formed the beginning of his acting
career.
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).Best was born on July 26, 1926, in Powderly, Kentucky, to Lark
and Lena Guy. His mother was the sister of Ike Everly, the father of
the pop duo The Everly Brothers. After his mother died of tuberculosis
in 1929, then three-year-old James was sent to live in an orphanage.
He was later adopted by Armen Best (1897â€"1984) and his wife, Essa
Myrtle (née Knowland; 1896â€"1988) and went to live with them in
Corydon, Indiana.Best served in the United States Army in World War
II, training in 1944 in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a gunner on a B-17
bomber; but by the time he completed his training the war had almost
ended, so he was assigned to the army's law enforcement section. In
the military police, as an "MP", Best served in war-torn Germany
immediately after the Nazi government's surrender in May 1945. While
stationed in Germany, Best soon transferred from the military police
to an army unit of actors, who traveled around Europe performing plays
for troops. Those experiences formed the beginning of his acting
career.
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