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And we continue with our American stories. Born in Kentucky, James Best was orphaned at the age of three and eventually adopted. After high school, he joined the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. In July of 1944, and served with the military police in war-torn Germany. He founded the James Best Theater Center in Los Angeles, becoming one of the hottest acting coaches in Hollywood, training the likes of Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Glenn Campbell, Quentin Tarantino, and Regis Philman.
Best and his wife actually gave the young Tarantino a place to sleep while he struggled to make it in Hollywood. Just before landing his role as Roscoe P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazard, Bess taught drama for two years at the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, right here where we broadcast, in Oxford, Mississippi. Here's James Best. with his story.
No. After the war, there was what they call werewolf gangs in Wiesbahn, Germany. And they were teenagers that had actually been trained by the SS. And actually, a lot of them fought in the war. They'd be like 12-year-olds, they'd get on a bicycle with a bazooka and fight the Russians.
with tanks.
So they were rough.
Well, we had to clean up the town, being in my tank.
So I was getting shot at more than most people did in the war, you know, and I I was going up to get a cup of coffee and a donut at the PX and A girl walked down the steps and she had a green uniform on with CAT on her shoulder. I say, come and see him be at the, I said, come here, please. And German, she said, I'm beg your pardon. I said, Are you an American? And she said yes.
And I said, what's going on? I said, what is the CAT? She said, a civilian actress technician. And I should uh What is that? I'm an old country boy.
I've never thought much about anything. I hadn't ever seen a play. She said, well, we're doing a play at the Wiesbaden Opera House. I said, oh, great. I said, I'll pick you up after the play.
So she said, well, I won't go out with you to come see the play. I said, I don't want to see the play. I'll pick you up after it. She said, no, that's not the way it's going to work.
So I go over to see the play. I'm sitting in the audience. Go country boy, the curtain goes up. And I'm like a kid in Disneyland. And I could not believe this.
This was like another world. I go back to stage to pick up the young lady and Harris G.I. is getting dressed out of the, from the, from the show. I said, wait a minute, I'm a sergeant. What are these guys?
What are these? And they said, they're in the show. They tour. They're treated like officers. We tour around the French, British, American zone.
I said, Wait a minute, I'm getting shot at every night, and these guys are traveling around with you pretty girls. I'm in the wrong outfit.
So I went to my commanding altar. And through certain circumstances. Uh I had a Pretty good record there and uh And so they transferred my... transferred me into special service. I started acting and I acted with these professional people and learned my craft.
So later on, when I came back to the States, I hitchhiked in New York to be an actor. I had that experience. And so I spent about three years in New York, did a Broadway show, did summer stock, winter stock, and then put under contract Universal in 1949. And I was there for two years.
So that started my career. I've counted over 600 television shows. I'm very fortunate because I got to work back in those days, the golden days, when they used talent instead of reality stars. I really am a little sick of coming out of Hollywood. You know, they're doing remakes of things that we did 40 years ago.
Only one thing that's different is that they use four-letter words, every other word, and body parts. And it's funny, I worked with Gene Auter and Hop Along Cassidy and Five Movies, Jimmy Stewart. And I worked with Bogart and Charlie Vest and Susan Hayward, all these wonderful people: Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds. It's funny, we didn't have to have Body parts fly. We didn't need four little words to tell the guy we hated him.
We just knocked him on his backside. I put a little chocolate syrup on my shirt. Fall off my horse. You knew I was dead. You didn't have to see my spine go fly across the room.
You know, I did K-Mutiny with Bogart. I did Naked the Dead, you know, and Jimmy Stewart was my icon. I did five movies with him. I did Shenandoah, Fire Creek, Mountain Road, Hawkins, Sinnersfella. and so forth.
I was doing Mountain Road. And Mr. Stewart in real life flew 23 combat missions in World War II. And while we were up there, an act of Congress, they made Mr. Stewart a general.
And I'm back there. I'm bored. I bore easy. I like action.
So I called down the room service and I said, Uh room servants? And I said, Yes. He said.
Well this is Mr. Stewart, yes, this is Mr. Stewart. Let me ask you, uh do you have any wine? And they said, well, yes, sir, we have what.
He said, well, I don't mean just any old wine. French, French, have good wine. And he said, yes, we have some very fine French. Send a bottle up to Mr. Best Suite.
Make it too.
Well, Mr. Stewart came back and I said, General, he wasn't used to that. He just made me, General. And he said, where are I? I said, Mr.
Stewart, I use your voice. to get two bottles of very fine French wine. Without hesitation, he said, Well, who's going to pay for that? Yes, God loved him. He loved for me to imitate him.
He'd always pretend like he was upset. But he wasn't at all. He wanted me to do it. Get me in a position where I would have to try to imitate him, you know. God love him.
He was marvelous. I was doing Hooper with Brett Reynolds, and I'd written a script and performed on it. And my agent called and said, I want to send you over on a series. I said, Syria and it's called Duxahalier. I said, I don't want to do a gang thing.
I really don't. They said, no, no, no, no, this is a good old boy thing, and they're going to shoot it in Tonyers, Georgia. And they said, I said, you're going to shoot it in Connecticut, Georgia. The fishing's good. The people are nice.
They're going to shoot the whole series in? They said, yeah. I said. I'm going over and see about that.
So I go over there and here is the producer and the director and the writers and the Inquisition sitting there in a bunch of chairs and they had one chair sitting out in front. And I sat down on that and he said, I said, now who are What is it? It's a shirt. And I said, how do you want me to play him? They said, well, we would like for him to be amusing.
He found it funny. And I said, well, I played a lot of heavies, but I starred with Jerry Lewis in a movie called Three on the Couch. That's how I can do comedy. I did that for summer stock.
So I thought, what am I going to do? Because I do not want to embarrass the sheriffs in this world. But I have too much respect for the fire department and sheriffs and military.
So I said, I'll play him like a 12-year-old who likes hot pursuit.
So, what I did when I said, Let me read the script. I read the script, and when I'm reading it, I did what I used to do with my little girls when they were little and I'd chasing them. I'd go, could you do you little rascal?
Well, they fell off their chair and they signed me. I was the first one they put on the contract. I have just caught the Duke boys going a half mile over the speed limit. With my new radar good. And we shot five episodes down in Congress, Georgia, and then they moved it back to that cesspool called LA.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look at there, Flash. There goes those Dukes. They're making a run for it. It's hot pursuit time, Flash.
My name is Jefferson Davis Hall with two G's. And just who might you be? Uh Uh Bosch, you know who I am? Rushcoat. Bush copy coal train.
Were you well, something wrong with his eyes? Oh, it's his head. Oh, insanity. No, no, no, no. J.D.
is suffering from a temporary case of amnesia. Amnesia, oh, oh, oh, who is this lovely lady? Oh, that's Luke. Luke, that's your wife. Oh, my wife.
Yeah, she's precious. That's you in the picture, though, ain't it? You should have shot the other side. My other profile is. You got your arm right around my wife.
I love her very dearly. What's going on between the two of you? Wait a minute, boss. Wait a minute. She's your wife, but she's my sister.
Oh, your sister! I see now. Wait a minute. What? That makes you my brother-in-law.
Yeah, you little rascal, couldn't you? I had no idea how low I'd really sunk. Um The comedy team with Sorrow and I came about actually At first, uh Saw played such a heavy in the uh series. Yeah. So I went through the the the powers of me and said, you know, it should be a nice relationship with uh uh Sorrel and I.
We can do sort of a modern day Laurel Hardy type of thing. And and if Roscoe likes Boss Hogg, then maybe other people will like him too. And it did, it worked very well. And that's why I would go, you know, little fat little buddy and chubby buddy. And it really became a wonderful relationship.
I believe in having fun and I believe in making people laugh. I think there's not enough laughter in this world and if I contribute to that Uh the enjoyment of anything I think Perhaps maybe that was my purpose rather than digging coal in Kentucky where My daddy and my family. live when I was a little boy. Cookie on YouTube. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler.
And you've been listening to James Best, the late James Best, who played Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane. of the Dukes of Hazard. here on Our American Stories. Providing a system like a two modern day Robin Hood Woo!
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Member FDIC. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter.
Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. I'm U. S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Mm-hmm. We all get distracted when we drive. whether it's from our phones, Or are kids in the back seat bickering? But how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life. or death.
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Mm-hmm.
