James Coburn Net Worth

James Coburn's Quotes

• Actors are boring when they are not working. It's a natural condition, because they don't have anything to do. They just lay around, and that's why so many of them get drunk. They really get to be boring people. My wife will attest to that.
• [on Sam Peckinpah] Sam is, I think, a great filmmaker. Of course, he's his own worst enemy. Sam is an unusual human being, and he needs to be treated like an unusual human being. He can create an atmosphere, whether he's drunk, sober, pissed off or in a rage, or whatever. I mean, for about three or four hours a day, he's a fucking genius. But the rest of the time he spends wallowing in a kind of emotional reaction to either good or bad memories.
• [on Sam Peckinpah] He knew how to bring something out of an actor that even the actor didn't know was there. That's what an actor works for. What else is there? Saying lines, or being cute, or whatever. No. People think about that. People think that acting is an easy chore. "Why, I can do that". Like they have today. Tits and ass, and this studio who's always doing his trip. Shooting and killing and blowing things up. Nah. That's junk. It's terrible junk. Commercial shit is what it is. And everybody likes it because it's easy. Nobody has to think about anything. They just sit there and sensitize themselves or desensitize themselves to anything real. And it's, "Oh boy! Wasn't he great? See that gun he had?" They're made for thirteen-, fourteen-year-old boys.
• [on Steve McQueen] Steve has to prove he had a worse childhood than anybody else. Only one other person I know can compete with him and that's Charles Bronson.
• [on Hard Contract (1969)] I was really unhappy with that film, because the fellow that directed it was also the writer. Now, he's a brilliant writer, but he was a terrible director. And he did so many things that were wrong, just out of pure ego, that he drove us all up the wall.

Interesting Facts about James Coburn

1. In 1979, Coburn started suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis, which left him debilitated at times. In 1998, a holistic healer started him on a dietary supplement, Methylsulfonylmethane, or MSM, that resulted in a drastic improvement in his condition.
2. Became a father for the first time at age 32 when his first wife Beverly Kelly gave birth to their son James H. Coburn IV on May 22, 1961.
3. Along with his The Magnificent Seven (1960) co-star, Steve McQueen, Coburn was a pallbearer at the funeral of his friend (and his martial arts instructor), Bruce Lee, on July 31, 1973 in Seattle, Washington.
4. Appears on the cover of Paul McCartney's album "Band on the Run" (1973).
5. He co-wrote two songs with Lynsey de Paul, "Melancholy Melon" and "Losin' the Blues for You" that appeared on her album "Tigers and Fireflies".
6. He had a relationship with Lynsey de Paul.
7. Stepdaughter Lisa was web mistress for genesimmons.com, the official website of Gene Simmons from the rock group KISS.
8. At the time of his death, he was at home listening to music and playing his flute.
9. Had appeared with Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson in two films, both of which were directed by John Sturges: The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963).
10. College friends with his The Magnificent Seven (1960) co-star Robert Vaughn.
11. Was a huge fan of Shichinin no samurai (1954). He greatly admired Seiji Miyaguchi's performance as Kyuzo, and would eventually play Britt, Kyuzo's counterpart in The Magnificent Seven (1960).
12. Despite being one of the stars, he had only eleven lines in The Magnificent Seven (1960).
13. He once played the gong on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).
14. For a time, he did ads for Schlitz beer. Later after the contract was finished, he admitted on a talk show that he never liked the taste of the beer.
15. He was the original choice for the role of Hannibal Smith in The A-Team (1983), which later went to George Peppard.
16. During the 1960s, he was often compared with Lee Marvin.
17. Became good friends with Kris Kristofferson during the filming of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). They also worked together on Convoy (1978) and Payback (1999). Coburn contributed with backup vocals on Kristofferson's album "Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame".
18. Had appeared in two feature films with Mel Gibson: Maverick (1994) and Payback (1999).
19. Had a granddaughter named Jayn Coburn who is the daughter of his son James H. Coburn IV.
20. Gained an Associate of Arts from Compton Junior College in 1950, before being drafted into the Army. Then on his return from service in Germany, he studied acting at Los Angeles City College, (along with Robert Vaughn) and improvisation at Jeff Corey's Professional Actors Workshop. One of his colleagues there was James Dean. He did not study at UCLA.