December 2, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before he became Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard, James Best lived a life filled with hardship, discipline, and creativity. Orphaned at three, shaped by his service with the Military Police in wartime Germany, and later admired for his work as the gentle lawman with Flash, the show’s basset hound, he carried a depth that never reached the screen. He appeared years earlier on The Andy Griffith Show as Jim Lindsey, yet it was his later work guiding young actors in Hollywood that revealed the heart of a man who understood struggle, humor, and the art of performance.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
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
nineteen forty four and served with the military police in
war torn Germany. He founded the James Best Theater Center
(00:31):
in Los Angeles, becoming one of the hottest acting coaches
in Hollywood, training the likes of Clinicetwood, Burt Reynolds, Glenn Campbell,
Quentin Tarantino, and Regis Philman. Best than 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.
(00:54):
Best taught drama for two years at the University of
Mississippi or Ole, miss right where we broadcast in Oxford, Mississippi.
Here's James Best with his story.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
After the war, there was what they call werewolf gangs
in Feastbonn, 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 twelve year old.
They'd get on a bicycle with a bazouka in fight
the Russians with tanks. Uh, I said, they were rough. Well,
we had to clean up the town. Being a back
(01:33):
so I was getting shot at more than most people
did in the war, you know. And 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 c at
on her shoulder. I said, come into here a bit.
I said, come here please, and German. And she she said,
I beg your pardon. I said, are you an American?
(01:56):
And she said yes. And I said, what's going on?
I said, what is the ch teas? He said, a
civilian actress, technician. And I said, well it's that I'm
an old country boy. I've got from that much about anything.
I had never seen a play. She said, well, we're
doing a play at the Beesbaden Opera House. I said,
oh great. I said, I'll pick up after the play.
(02:18):
So she said, well, I won't go out with you know,
just come see the play. I said, I don't want
to see the play. I'll pick up after it. She said, no, wait,
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 am like a kid in Disneyland,
(02:38):
and I could not believe this. This was like Comet
of the World. I go back to the age to
pick up the young lady and here's g I is
getting dressed out of them 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, and we tour around
the French, British American zone. I said, wait a minute,
(03:00):
I'm gonna start. 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 so they transferred my transferred me into special service.
(03:21):
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 Winner Stock, and then put under
contract Universal nineteen forty nine and I was there for
(03:42):
two years. So that started my career. I've counted over
six hundred 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 have
a little sick coming out of Hollywood. You over, they're
doing remake of things that we did forty years ago.
Only only one thing that it's different is that they
(04:04):
used four letter words every other word and body parts.
And it's funny. I worked with Gene Aundter and I
Belong Cassidy and five Movies, Jimmy Stewart, and I worked
with Bouguard and Charles Guston Soon and they were 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. Till the guy we hated him, we knocked,
(04:26):
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 get
Kate Mutiney with Boguard. I didn't Naked the Dead, you know.
And Jimmy and Jimmy Stewart was my onkhon. I did
(04:47):
five movies with him. I did Chinnana, Fire Creek, Mountain Road,
Hawkins Centers, Fella and so forth. I was doing Mountain Road.
And mister Stewart in real life twenty three combat missions
in World War Two. And while we were up there
an Act of Congress, they made mister Stewart a general.
(05:08):
And I'm back there. I'm bored, I bore easy. I
like actually, so I called down the room service and
I said, uh, room service, and they said yes. He said,
well this is mister Stuart. Yes, this is mister Stewart.
Let me ask you do you have any wine? And
(05:29):
they said, well, yes, sir, we have one. He said, well,
I don't mean just any any old wine. French. The
French have good wine. He said, yes, we have some
very fire friends. Shouldn't a bottle up to mister best
sweet may make it two? Well, mister Stewart came back
and I said, General, he wasn't used to that, and
(05:51):
he said, well, I said, Missus Stewart, I used your
your voice to get two bottles of very fine French
wine taste. And 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,
(06:11):
but he wasn't. That 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 Bret Reynolds,
and I had written the script and performed on it,
and my agent call and said, I want to send
you over on a on a series. I said, and
it says called Dukes. I said, I don't want to
(06:33):
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 Conye, Georgia. And they said, I said,
you're gonna shoot it in Connor, Georgia. The fishing is good,
the people are nice, and they're gonna shoot the whole
series in and 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 in the inquisition. They're sitting there in
(06:56):
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 is? And
it's a sheriff. And I said, how do you want
me to play? And they said, well, we wouldn't like
for him to be amusing he found funny. And I said, well,
I've played a lot of heavies, but I did. I
started with Jerry Lewis in a movie Careelnicavity. I said,
(07:16):
I can do comedy. I did that at the summer start.
So I thought, what am I going to do? Because
I do not want to embarrass the sheriffs in this world,
because I have too much respect for the fire Department
and the sheriffs in the military. So I said, I'll
play him like a twelve 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,
(07:39):
I did what I used to do with my little
girls when they were a little and I seek chasing
them way, I going, don't get you here a little rusk. 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.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Good and.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We shot five episodes down in Congres, Georgia, and then
they moved it back to that cesspool called l A.
Look at their face there goes no stop. God, I
love it. I love it. It's hot in pursuit time flies.
(08:23):
My name is Jefferson Davis Hall.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh to g.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Until too? Might you be Bush? You know who I am?
Russ Cool Rush, Copie Coltrane. Something wrong with his eyes?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
It's his head insanity is suffering from a temporary case
of Ah.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Who is this lovely lady?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Luke, that's your wife?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Uh, that's you in the picture, though, ain't it?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You should have shot the other side the profile.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
God, your arm right around my life?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I love her very what's going on between the two
of you? Minute? She's your web But she's my sister.
Ooh your sister? Now wait a minute, what that makes
you my brother in law? I had no idea how
low i'd really sunk.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
The comedy team with Saw and I came about actually
at first, uh played such a heavy in the series
played plus a mean guy that so I went through
the powers of being said, you know, it should be
a nice relationship with Sorel and I. We can do
sort of a modern day Laurel Hardy type of thing,
and if Roscoe likes Boss Hogg, then maybe other.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
People will like him too. And it did.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It worked very well, and that's why we go whoa
the little fat little Buddy and Chubby Buddy, and it
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
(10:15):
was my purpose rather than digging Cole in Kentucky, where
my daddy and my family lived when I was a
little boy.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And you've been listening to
James Best, the late James Best, who played Sheriff Frosco
pet Coltrane of the Dukes of Hazard here on our
American stories.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
In the system. Lack of two modern d Robin Hoo
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
nineteen forty four and served with the military police in
war torn Germany. He founded the James Best Theater Center
(00:31):
in Los Angeles, becoming one of the hottest acting coaches
in Hollywood, training the likes of Clinicetwood, Burt Reynolds, Glenn Campbell,
Quentin Tarantino, and Regis Philman. Best than 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.
(00:54):
Best taught drama for two years at the University of
Mississippi or Ole, miss right where we broadcast in Oxford, Mississippi.
Here's James Best with his story.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
After the war, there was what they call werewolf gangs
in Feastbonn, 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 twelve year old.
They'd get on a bicycle with a bazouka in fight
the Russians with tanks. Uh, I said, they were rough. Well,
we had to clean up the town. Being a back
(01:33):
so I was getting shot at more than most people
did in the war, you know. And 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 c at
on her shoulder. I said, come into here a bit.
I said, come here please, and German. And she she said,
I beg your pardon. I said, are you an American?
(01:56):
And she said yes. And I said, what's going on?
I said, what is the ch teas? He said, a
civilian actress, technician. And I said, well it's that I'm
an old country boy. I've got from that much about anything.
I had never seen a play. She said, well, we're
doing a play at the Beesbaden Opera House. I said,
oh great. I said, I'll pick up after the play.
(02:18):
So she said, well, I won't go out with you know,
just come see the play. I said, I don't want
to see the play. I'll pick up after it. She said, no, wait,
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 am like a kid in Disneyland,
(02:38):
and I could not believe this. This was like Comet
of the World. I go back to the age to
pick up the young lady and here's g I is
getting dressed out of them 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, and we tour around
the French, British American zone. I said, wait a minute,
(03:00):
I'm gonna start. 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 so they transferred my transferred me into special service.
(03:21):
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 Winner Stock, and then put under
contract Universal nineteen forty nine and I was there for
(03:42):
two years. So that started my career. I've counted over
six hundred 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 have
a little sick coming out of Hollywood. You over, they're
doing remake of things that we did forty years ago.
Only only one thing that it's different is that they
(04:04):
used four letter words every other word and body parts.
And it's funny. I worked with Gene Aundter and I
Belong Cassidy and five Movies, Jimmy Stewart, and I worked
with Bouguard and Charles Guston Soon and they were 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. Till the guy we hated him, we knocked,
(04:26):
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 get
Kate Mutiney with Boguard. I didn't Naked the Dead, you know.
And Jimmy and Jimmy Stewart was my onkhon. I did
(04:47):
five movies with him. I did Chinnana, Fire Creek, Mountain Road,
Hawkins Centers, Fella and so forth. I was doing Mountain Road.
And mister Stewart in real life twenty three combat missions
in World War Two. And while we were up there
an Act of Congress, they made mister Stewart a general.
(05:08):
And I'm back there. I'm bored, I bore easy. I
like actually, so I called down the room service and
I said, uh, room service, and they said yes. He said,
well this is mister Stuart. Yes, this is mister Stewart.
Let me ask you do you have any wine? And
(05:29):
they said, well, yes, sir, we have one. He said, well,
I don't mean just any any old wine. French. The
French have good wine. He said, yes, we have some
very fire friends. Shouldn't a bottle up to mister best
sweet may make it two? Well, mister Stewart came back
and I said, General, he wasn't used to that, and
(05:51):
he said, well, I said, Missus Stewart, I used your
your voice to get two bottles of very fine French
wine taste. And 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,
(06:11):
but he wasn't. That 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 Bret Reynolds,
and I had written the script and performed on it,
and my agent call and said, I want to send
you over on a on a series. I said, and
it says called Dukes. I said, I don't want to
(06:33):
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 Conye, Georgia. And they said, I said,
you're gonna shoot it in Connor, Georgia. The fishing is good,
the people are nice, and they're gonna shoot the whole
series in and 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 in the inquisition. They're sitting there in
(06:56):
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 is? And
it's a sheriff. And I said, how do you want
me to play? And they said, well, we wouldn't like
for him to be amusing he found funny. And I said, well,
I've played a lot of heavies, but I did. I
started with Jerry Lewis in a movie Careelnicavity. I said,
(07:16):
I can do comedy. I did that at the summer start.
So I thought, what am I going to do? Because
I do not want to embarrass the sheriffs in this world,
because I have too much respect for the fire Department
and the sheriffs in the military. So I said, I'll
play him like a twelve 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,
(07:39):
I did what I used to do with my little
girls when they were a little and I seek chasing
them way, I going, don't get you here a little rusk. 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.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Good and.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We shot five episodes down in Congres, Georgia, and then
they moved it back to that cesspool called l A.
Look at their face there goes no stop. God, I
love it. I love it. It's hot in pursuit time flies.
(08:23):
My name is Jefferson Davis Hall.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh to g.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Until too? Might you be Bush? You know who I am?
Russ Cool Rush, Copie Coltrane. Something wrong with his eyes?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
It's his head insanity is suffering from a temporary case
of Ah.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Who is this lovely lady?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Luke, that's your wife?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Uh, that's you in the picture, though, ain't it?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You should have shot the other side the profile.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
God, your arm right around my life?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I love her very what's going on between the two
of you? Minute? She's your web But she's my sister.
Ooh your sister? Now wait a minute, what that makes
you my brother in law? I had no idea how
low i'd really sunk.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
The comedy team with Saw and I came about actually
at first, uh played such a heavy in the series
played plus a mean guy that so I went through
the powers of being said, you know, it should be
a nice relationship with Sorel and I. We can do
sort of a modern day Laurel Hardy type of thing,
and if Roscoe likes Boss Hogg, then maybe other.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
People will like him too. And it did.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It worked very well, and that's why we go whoa
the little fat little Buddy and Chubby Buddy, and it
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
(10:15):
was my purpose rather than digging Cole in Kentucky, where
my daddy and my family lived when I was a
little boy.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And you've been listening to
James Best, the late James Best, who played Sheriff Frosco
pet Coltrane of the Dukes of Hazard here on our
American stories.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
In the system. Lack of two modern d Robin Hoo
Host
Lee Habeeb
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