The Story of James Best (AKA Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane) of "The Dukes of Hazzard"

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See website for details. What's up? This your boy Lil Duval and check out my podcast, Conversations with Unk on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Each and every Tuesday, Conversations with Unk podcast feature casuals and in-depth talk about ebbs and flows of life and the pursuit of happiness. Unlike my work on stage, I tap into a more serious and sensitive side to give life advice and simply offer words of encouragement, yet remind folks to never forget to laugh. Every Tuesday, listen to Conversations with Unk hosted by Lil Duval on the Black Effect Podcast Network, our hard radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by AT&T.

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How doers get more done. Shop for Father's Day now in stores or online at homedepot.com. 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, Glen Campbell, Quentin Tarantino, and Regis Philbin. 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 Hazzard, Best 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. After the war, there was what they call werewolf gangs in Wiesbaden, 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-old.

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 town.

So I was getting shot at more than most people did in the war. 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 said, come in here. I said, come here, please, in German. And she said, I 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 C-18? She said, a civilian actress technician. And I said, what is that?

I'm an old country boy. I've never heard that much about anything. I had never 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 unless you come see the play. I said, I don't want to see the play. I'll pick up after it.

She said, no, I thought the way it would have worked. So I go over to see the play. I'm sitting in the audience, old 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 backstage to pick up the young lady and here's G.I.

is getting dressed out of the, from the show. I said, wait a minute. I'm a Sergeant. What are these guys? What are they? 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 a Sergeant. 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, I had a pretty good record there. And, 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, uh, I spent about three years in New York, did a Broadway show in 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 use 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, only one thing that is different is that they use four letter words, every other word and body parts. And it's funny.

I worked with Jean Audrey and I belong Cassidy and five movies, Jimmy Stewart, and I worked with Beauregard and Charlton Heston, Susan May with 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 letter words to the guy. We hated him.

We knocked, just knocked him on his backside. I'd 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'd get Kate Mutiny with Bogart, Naked and the Dead, you know, and Jimmy, Jimmy Stewart was my icon. I did five movies with him. I did Shenandoah, Fire Creek, Mountain Road, Hawkins, Sinner's Fellow, 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 to room service and I said, room service? And they said, yes. He said, well, this is Mr. Stewart.

Yes. This is Mr. Stewart. Let me ask you, do you have any wine? And they said, well, yes, sir.

We have one. He said, well, I don't mean just any wine. They're French.

They're French. Have good wine. He said, yes, we have some very fine French. Send a bottle up to Mr. Beth Sweet.

Make that two. Well, Mr. Stewart came back and I said, General, he wasn't used to that. He just didn't like General. And he said, yeah, well, 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 love him. He, 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 Brent Reynolds and I'd written the script and performed on it. And my agent called and said, I want to send you over on a, on a series. I said, a series? It's called Dukes of Hadley. I said, I don't want to do a gang thing.

I really don't. And they said, no, no, no, no. This is a good old boy thing. And they're going to shoot it in Conyers, Georgia. And they said, I said, you're going to shoot it in Conyers, Georgia.

Fishing's good. The people are nice. They're going to shoot the whole series in. And they said, yeah. I said, I'm going to go and see about that. So I go over there and here is the producer and the director and the writers and the inquisition.

They're sitting there in a bunch of chairs and they had one chair sitting out in front. And I sat down on that and they said, I said, now, what, what is this? And he said, sure. And I said, how do you want me to play him? And they said, well, we would like for him to be amusing and funny. And I said, well, I've played a lot of heavies, but I did, I started with Jerry Lewis in a movie called three on account. I signed the comedy.

I did that in summer stock. So I thought, what am I going to do? Cause I do not want to embarrass the sheriffs in this world because I have too much respect for the fire department and the sheriffs and the 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 see chasing them. I go, well, they fell off their chair and they signed me. I was the first one they put under contract. I've 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. My name is Jefferson Davis Hall. Oh, with two G's.

Two G's. And who might you be? Oh, you know who I am? Roscoe.

Roscoe, be Coltrane. Something wrong with his eyes? It's his head. Oh, insanity.

No, no. J.D. is suffering from a temporary case of amnesia.

Amnesia. Oh, who is this lovely lady? Oh, that's Lulu. That's your wife. Oh, my wife. Oh, my, oh, my. That's you in the picture though, ain't it?

You should have shot the other side of the profile. You got your arm right around my wife. I love her very dear.

What's going on between the two of you? Wait a minute, boys. Wait a minute. She's your wife, but she's my sister. Oh, your sister. Wait a minute. What? That makes you my brother-in-law.

I had no idea how low I'd really sunk. The comedy team with Sorrel and I came about actually at first Sorrel played such a heavy in the series. He played such a mean guy that so I went through the powers of being said, you know, it should be a nice relationship with Sorrel and I.

We can do sort of a modern day Laurel Hardy type of thing. 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 a 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, the enjoyment of anything, I think perhaps maybe that was my purpose rather than digging coal in Kentucky where my daddy and my family lived when I was a little boy. 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 Hazzard here on Our American Stories. It's time for today's Luckyland horoscope with Victoria Cash. Life's gotten mundane, so shake up the daily routine and be adventurous with a trip to Luckyland.

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