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

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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 Two 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 were like 12 years 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.

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. A girl walked down the steps and she had a green uniform on with C.A.T. on her shoulder. I said, come here, please. And she said, are you an American? And she said, yes. And I said, what's going on? I said, what is the C.A.T.? 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, 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've got a way to go to work. 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 sorry. 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 transfer 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 in summer stock, winter stock and then put under contract, Universal 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 coming out of Hollywood. You know, they're doing remakes of things that we did 40 years ago.

Only one thing that is different is that they use four letter words, every other word and body parts. And that's funny. I worked with Gene Autry and I belong, Cassidy and five movies. Jimmy Stewart and I worked with Bogart 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 not 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 get Kate Mutiny with Bogart, 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, Sinner's Fellow and so forth. I was doing Mountain Road and Mr. Stewart in real life flew 23 combat missions in World War Two.

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. He said, well, I don't mean just any wine, French, the French have good wine. And 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. And he said, yeah, well, I said, Mr. Stewart, I use your 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.

God love him. He was marvelous. I was doing Hooper with Brent 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 on a series. I said, a series? And it says called Dukes of Heathers. 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 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. They said, yeah. I said, I'm going to go over 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 they said, sure. And I said, how do you want me playing? They said, well, we would like for him to be amusing and funny. And I said, well, I played a lot of heavies, but I did.

I started with Jerry Lewis in a movie called Three on a Cow. As I can do comedy, I did that in summer stock. So I thought, what am I going to do?

Because I do not want to embarrass the sheriff's in this world because I have too much respect for the fire department and the sheriff's in 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'd 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 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 L.A.. Oh, look at their face. There goes those Dukes. Oh, they're making a run for it. I love it. I love it.

It's hot pursuit time. My name is Jefferson Davis Hall. Oh, with two G's. And who might you be? Oh, boss, 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 Lou Lou. 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 my profile. 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. That makes you my brother-in-law. Yeah, you little Roscoe.

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 that be and 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, 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. Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover.

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