James Best Net Worth

James Best's Quotes

• [on Norman Lloyd turning 100 in 2014] I had the honor to have been directed by Norman in [The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Jar (1964)]. Having worked with hundreds of directors in my career, I found very few that had Norman's qualities. He was most kind, gracious and patient with his actors. He is in all respects a complete gentleman in his personal life and I found it a genuine pleasure just to be in the presence of such a talented man. I am also doubly honored to consider him my friend. We are so blessed to have such a man among us for so long.
• [on his favorite The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) episode] What I really enjoyed was the episode where Rosco thinks he inherits a million dollars and makes Boss Hogg his deputy. That was a fun, fun show. And then the other show that I enjoyed, I got to play a dual role, where I play a guy who actually has his face built like Rosco and he's trying to imitate Rosco. So I actually play Rosco two different ways. That one was fun. But I'll be very honest with you. Almost every show that I worked, it was a blessing. I worked, of course, mostly with Boss Hogg. Sorrell Booke [Boss Hogg] spoke five languages. He was a brilliant actor, and he let me ad lib all over the place, and he would go along with it.
• When I was putting the "Best of Hollywood" book together, I sat down and added up just the list of Westerns I've done, and it came to well over 200.
• [on his early career] Well, I was very lucky, because I was under contract with Universal Studios for two years, and after I got out of there, I got up with Gene Autry and his series. So I was working constantly.
• [in 2009, about his role as Rosco Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)] I acted the part, as good as I could. Rosco, let's face it, was a charmer. It was a fun thing.

Interesting Facts about James Best

1. His billing for Three on a Couch (1966) read: "Introducing James Best", despite the fact that he had been in movies for 16 years and had appeared in over 30 films.
2. Cousin of singers Don Everly and Phil Everly.
3. Father of Janeen Damian.
4. Director Quentin Tarantino has said that the work of Best "taught me how to act". Ironically, when Tarantino appeared in a 1990s Broadway revival of the play "Wait Until Dark", he received some of his worst acting reviews ever.
5. Father-in-law of Michael Damian.
6. Brother-in-law of John Collier.
7. Had a black belt in karate.
8. Served in the US Army as a Military Policeman in Germany after World War II.
9. Was the youngest of eight boys and one girl. His mother died when he was three and he was taken to an orphanage when his Kentucky-born father, a coal miner, could no longer keep the family together. He was adopted at age 4 by Armen and Essa Best of Indiana.
10. In the mid-70s he decided to take a semi-retirement, and became an artist-in-residence at the University of Mississippi. During his two years there, he taught motion picture technique and drama, directed four plays, established the Mississippi Film Commission and was elected to the university's Hall of Fame.
11. He and wife Dorothy Best, along with Kevin Lang, formed their own production company, Best Friend Films. The company specializes in high-definition production, featuring the Panasonic Varicam, with a Pro 35 lens adapter, which enables them to use Panavision 35mm film lenses on a digital camera. They also feature an HD online edit suite, making them a "one-stop shop in HD production" for the independent producer.
12. Moved to Florida in 1987 and taught on campus at the University of Central Florida. He was also appointed to the Advisory Council for the Motion Picture, Television, and Recording Industry of Florida. In 1992 he was the recipient of Florida's "Crystal Reel Award" for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, for an episode of In the Heat of the Night (1988) with Carroll O'Connor.
13. Founded the first school to teach actors motion picture technique in the 1970s. He taught in Hollywood for 25 years and worked with such stars as Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Gary Busey, Teri Garr, Lindsay Wagner, Farrah Fawcett and Quentin Tarantino.
14. Before she took up acting, Lindsay Wagner babysat for Best's children. It was Best who encouraged Wagner to take acting lessons and, in effect, kick-started her career.
15. In The Dukes of Hazzard: The Dukes in Hollywood (1984), Roscoe (Best) and Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) are discussing who should play them in a fictional movie about Hazzard County. Roscoe picks Burt Reynolds. Reynolds was a former acting student of Best, and the two had been friends for many years. Reynolds later played "Boss Hogg" in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005).
16. Best known by the public for his starring role as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979).
17. Acting mentor and friends of Tom Wopat, John Schneider and Catherine Bach.
18. Met Denver Pyle when both worked in The Left Handed Gun (1958). Some 21 years later he would co-star opposite Pyle on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), in which Pyle played the patriarch of the Duke family. The friendship would last for almost 40 years, until Pyle's death in late 1997.
19. Best's adoptive father, Armen Neely Best, died on June 1, 1984, at age 87. His adoptive mother, Essa Knowland Best, died on March 30, 1988, at age 92.
20. When he guest-starred on one of the three episodes of Laramie (1959), the writers jokingly created the name of Johnny Best, whose character was named after him.