James Best is a classic actor who has appeared alongside some of the most well-known stars, including Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Jerry Lewis, and many more! Later in his career, he appeared as the lovable, bumbling Rosco P. Coltrane on the successful television series, The Dukes of Hazzard. Primarily known for his work in westerns, Best alternated between TV and the big screen, co-starring in feature films while making appearances in shows like The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, and other famous series. His newly completed autobiography Best in Hollywood: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful, paints a complete portrait of him as an actor. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with James about his career. You can read the transcription and listen to the audio below. If your browser is not equipped with Flash, you can download it here.

MP: I’m on the phone with James Best, a classic actor with an extensive filmography to his credit, and also a great deal of television work. He has appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Andy Griffith Show, but his iconic role as Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard has earned him well-deserved acclaim. James, it’s great to be speaking with you; thank you so much!

James: Well thank you Gary. I appreciate it.

MP: I’d like to ask you about your early film work. You had a couple of uncredited roles, but even the credited roles were mainly Westerns, films like Winchester '73 and Kansas Raiders.

James: Yeah I was under contract to Universal Studio at the time. They did an awful lot of westerns at that time. After I left Universal Studio, I worked with Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy and all the rest of them. So in my career, we figured out I did over 200 westerns, including Bonanza and Rawhide and Gunsmoke and all the different westerns. I loved to do westerns of course.

MP: So you were you comfortable in the genre?

James: Yeah (laughs), I was an old country boy. I think everybody dreams when they’re young that they want to grow up to be a cowgirl or a cowboy, and I got to fulfill my dream on that.

MP: Those early films also placed you among people like Jimmy Stewart, Tony Curtis, Richard Arlen, and many other major people. Were you able to view them as costars or were you at all star struck to be working with them?

James: Well I starred in a lot of those shows. Actually, to be very honest with you, working that much, I did five movies with Jimmy Stewart; I did Shenandoah, Firecreek, and Mountain Road. But on TV shows, when I did westerns, generally I co-starred on them; I didn’t do small parts. Like Winchester ’73 – Tony Curtis and I were under contract. I think Tony had one line and I don’t think I had one (laughs). In fact, my part was so small that I died and then came back to life and nobody ever knew the difference.

MP: Among all of these Westerns, you made a film in 1950 called I Was a Shoplifter. Crime films were huge in the 1940s and 1950s. Were there any differences between the crime genre and the western genre that stood out to you, in terms of how they were shot?

James: Well you know Gary, what was interesting is the writers in California at the time – they would write a script and they didn’t determine whether it would be a western or a detective show because it was interchangeable. If they didn’t sell a western to the studio then they’d just rewrite it as a horror or some other format – anything to sell their script. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t. So we did what we did, what was bad, I mean as far as quality was concerned. The Gene Autry thing – he had a company, ‘Flying A’, and they did Annie Oakley, Range Rider, and Lassie, and all those different movies. And what was funny on these westerns – if you fell off your horse by accident, he’d just write it in the next script and that way he got a free stunt out of it (laughs). Actually, when you’re working that fast – in those days you’d do a TV show, do a Bonanza, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, you’d do it in two or three days, sometimes you’d do two different shows in a week. So they added up pretty quickly, and you really weren’t star struck because you worked with everybody. I just recently found out that I did a Green Hornet and had a fight sequence with Bruce Lee. I didn’t even recognize that as one that I had done in the past! But that just goes to show you, as I look back and look on my bio – of course I’m 84 years old so you’ll have to cut me some slack, my memory is not as good as it used to be – it’s funny, I look on that bio and I was amazed at some of the people that I had worked with! Of course, a lot of them in the old days were coming up through the ranks too, like Lee Marvin, Strother Martin. Then I starred with Paul Newman in Left Handed Gun, a western, and I worked with Lee Marvin and Paul on a thing called The Rack. I did Twilight Zone and everything else. Twilight Zone was of course like a training ground for young actors, I don’t mean necessarily in age but as far as experience is concerned. It was marvelous. If you’ve watched many Twilight Zones, you’ve seen an awful lot of people that later on became superstars.

MP: I wanted to jump ahead a little bit and ask you about a film you made in 1966 called Three on a Couch.

James: Yes. Jerry Lewis introduced me and I’d done a hundred pictures and television shows by that time. And I said, “Why are you introducing me?” and he said “Because you generally play the killer or the bad guy, and in this you’re going to be the good guy”. So he introduced me in the movie and I got to work with him and Janet Leigh and Leslie Parrish. Jerry was a dream to work for because the man could do it all – he was a good producer, he was a good writer and certainly a wonderful talent in his own right. I really consider that one of the highlights of my career – working on that particular movie.

MP: Was it difficult to work on a film where the lead actor is also the director?

James: No not with Jerry. Jerry made you feel at home. He treated every actor on the show – whether he had one line or was co-starring – he treated us all equal. Everybody had a beautiful dressing room, and Jerry took care of his cast and crew. He was a very thoughtful man. There were other times that Jerry was a little obnoxious in my opinion. I told Jerry one time - I used to go down there on his boat, we’d spend the weekend down on that boat and cruise around with it – I said “Jerry, you’re so different when you’re not in front of the cameras. You’re five different people and I hate three of them!” But I sure did love the other two; he was a really fine, fine man. And he’s raised a billion dollars for children so he can’t be too bad.

MP: By this time in your career, had you developed any favorite or not-so-favorite co-stars?

James: Jimmy Stewart was my icon. I really had a great time doing a western called Firecreek. Of course, there I had Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Jack Elam, Morgan Woodward; that was really a great privilege to work with that kind of talent.

MP: The Caine Mutiny is a famous film. You, of course, had the opportunity to work with Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, and Fred MacMurray. Your director, Edward Dmytryk, was extremely well known with films like Murder My Sweet and Crossfire to his credit. What are your memories of the film and working with Dmytryk as a director?

James: I really didn’t have a big part in that show because it was so full of big stars and I didn’t have that kind of name really. I was one of his officers and I had a few lines. But just to be in the presence of these classic actors – and Bogart won the Academy Award for that particular part of Capt. Queeg – then of course working with that fine director. I fortunately got to work with some of the finest directors in the industry during my career. Generally, a good director really treats his actors very well and I find that a good director, if he really respects you, will leave you alone most of the time rather than give you blocking and so forth – they’ll give you line readings. I hated that, when you get a director that starts giving you line readings, that’s when you want to walk off the set because it’s very frustrating.

MP: Over the course of your career, you didn’t do too many horror films, with the exception of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953 and The Killer Shrews in 1959. But in 1998, you wrote and starred in a film called Death Mask, so you obviously like the genre.

James: That’s funny you mention Killer Shrews. We’re in the process right now – we were going to shoot a sequel and I play the same part I played 52 years ago. What was hysterical – I did the original because I had starred in a picture for Sammy Fuller called Verboten, I did two of them, I did one called Shock Corridor with him also. He said, “Jimmy I want you to do me a favor”, I said “Sure anything”, he said “I have a dear friend named Ray Kellogg who wants to direct a movie. He’s going to shoot it in Texas. He has a very small budget and its a little horror film”. I said “I don’t know if I want to do that”, he said “Well, Ken Curtis is in it”. I’d worked with Ken on Gunsmoke and some other movies, and I like Ken, and he said “And they got Ms. Sweden”, I said “Oh well, where do I go to sign up?” Ingrid Goude was a beautiful girl from Sweden and she was a Ms. Universe I believe. So we went down and shot Killer Shrews and I think they shot it for about 15 cents and it was so bad it became a cult film! Now, if you type in Killer Shrews in the search, or go to my webpage and see Killer Shrews, it’s hysterical the different reactions from different people. But the sequel – we actually got Steve Latshaw, who is a very fine professional writer, and myself, and a man named Pat Murant, to write on the script. Steve is going to direct it. I got John Schneider to star in it with me and Mel Tillis and Rick Hurst, who was in Dukes of Hazzard and played my dipstick deputy. It’s going to be a hysterically funny spoof movie. It’s not a slasher film; I don’t really care for those particular types of horror films. But the original, we used for the shrews, which were supposed to be mutated mice that get as big as dogs, so we used dogs (laughs) with these hairy looking rugs all over them! On this new one we’ll be shooting with my movie company, I have those Red cameras, which is the finest equipment you can possibly get. So this one will be a lot better; mechanically it’ll certainly be hands above what we shot originally. It’s going to be fun. It’ll be fun working with John and Rick Hurst again and Mel Tillis of course; I love him.

MP: You did mention The Twilight Zone. I recently watched one of your episodes called The Grave. The Twilight Zone was always one of my favorite shows. Can you tell me how it was to work on it?

James: I did three of them. I was honored to be one of three different actors who actually did three Twilight Zones. I did one called “Jess-Belle” with Anne Francis and I did one called “Jeff Myrtlebank” [The Last Rites of Jess Myrtlebank], and I played a man who gets up out of the coffin after he’s been dead for three days. I just loved working the Twilight Zones because it got me out. I didn’t have to go out on the desert with a sweaty horse. It was really fun to be on that air conditioned stage and we had beautiful sets and we had very good directors. Rod Serling wrote very good scripts, but Monty Pittman had written a couple of those. The Grave, believe it or not, was a ghost story that I had learned as a kid when I was raised in southern Indiana, and I told it to him and he [Pittman] wrote it into that western called The Grave. It’s been playing quite a bit; I guess a lot of people liked it. Of course, Lee Marvin was brilliant in it.

MP: Did you have any interaction with Rod Serling?

James: No not really. He sort of narrated everything. At that point, I guess he was making so much money he didn’t actually have to get too physically involved. He’d come in one day and he would narrate the beginning and tell you a brief outline of the story. But actually working with him personally – no I did not. It was just like when I did a lot of the Alfred Hitchcocks but I never worked physically with Alfred Hitchcock, I worked with the directors that he hired to do those Hitchcock shows.

MP: Naturally, I have to ask you about The Dukes of Hazzard. The series began in 1979 and continued into the mid-80s. When you took the role of Rosco P. Coltrane, did you have any idea the show would be so popular and influential?

James: You know, it’s a funny thing. I’d been in the business for a long time and I had done good stuff and bad stuff and mediocre stuff. I went over to read the script; I had just finished making a movie with Burt Reynolds called Hooper. My agent called and said “Would you like to go over and see about a pilot for a series called Dukes of Hazzard?” I said “I don’t want to do a gang thing” and he said “Oh no this is a good ol’ boy thing and they’re going to shoot the whole thing in Conyers, Georgia”. I had produced a movie with Burt Reynolds called Gator down there and I liked it down there, the fishing was nice and the people were very friendly and nice. I said “They’re going to shoot the whole series in Georgia?” and he said “Yes”. I said “I’m going to go see about that.” Well I went over to see them and I read the script; I said “I don’t really want to play a bad, crooked sheriff. I’ll tell you what I’ll do – I’ll play Rosco P. Coltrane as if he was a 12 year old who liked hot pursuit”. And that’s exactly the way I played him. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do that. I did what I did with my girls when they were little, when they were about four or five years old, I used to tease them, I’d go (mimics Rosco P. Coltrane voice). I did that on the reading and they fell off their chairs laughing, and I was the first one they signed on the Dukes of Hazzard. We went down to Georgia and they only had been scheduled to shoot five. They shot five and then all of a sudden they said they were going to shoot six more and pretty soon it took off. We were number one for three solid years, number one in the world. When we went off seven years later, we were still in the top ten. We had a grandfather figure with Uncle Jesse; we had two very handsome boys and we had Daisy Duke, who would stop your heart and a covey of quail full flight with those shorts on. You had a sort of a Laurel and Hardy situation with Boss Hogg and Rosco. So we had it pretty well covered, and we had a magic flying car that could jump a hundred foot canyon and come out without bending a fender (laughs). I think they had all the bases covered with that particular series, you know, so I didn’t see why it wouldn’t go. I had gone ahead and actually done some pilots that I knew would not sell or didn’t think they would, and they did not (laughs). So I was really grateful to be a small part of a show that was accepted worldwide, in 40 different countries. It was a pleasure to go to Rome and Paris and Germany and those places, and have people come up and hug you and say “We love the show”. So we were very happy with that; we didn’t have to use four-letter words and we didn’t have to have body parts flying all over to make a successful show. But I wish Hollywood would learn that, you know?

MP: You directed a few of those episodes. How was it for you on the other side of the camera?

James: Well I’ve always loved directing. I taught camera technique; I started the first camera technique workshop in the world where I’d teach the actors how to give a performance in front of the camera, and I taught for about 35 years. I work a lot behind the cameras with my studio. So it was very easy for me to direct. It was a cinch as far as that’s concerned because over a period of time I learned how to do something correctly. I love directing. The acting is fun, but directing – there’s an awful lot of stress. I don’t direct as much as I used to because I’m 84 years old now and I just stick to my acting, that’ll do me fine.

MP: Tell me a little bit about your book, Best in Hollywood: The Good, The Bad, & The Beautiful.

James: You know, my children and my grandchildren tried to urge me. They said “Daddy you’ve had a wonderful life and wonderful experiences. Why don’t you put them down and write a bio?” So I did it more for them. It was about a three year labor of love and I had a bunch of pictures to put in the book. I was adopted when I was four years old. My dad was a coalminer in Kentucky; I was born in Kentucky and then adopted by these wonderful people. I was so fortunate and I just liked to share my wonderful life that I’ve been blessed with in a book. So I wrote it during the golden years when Hollywood was a queen. Unfortunately, today’s Hollywood is not quite as shiny and brilliant as it used to be. They’re relying so much on filth. The stuff that’s coming out of there now, as far as I’m concerned, is porno, you know? There’s some good movies coming out of Hollywood, but the majority as I can see, they rely more and more on four-letter words and special effects with very, very violent body parts and stuff flying. I wish we could get back to the golden years. I loved it back in those days because you mention Jimmy Stewart, everybody knew who that was. Nowadays, every half-baked, would-be, can’t-be, and never-will-be actor is a megastar and they can’t even spell it, much less having studied acting or anything. Every so-called reality star or ex-football player, he hangs up his helmet and all of sudden he thinks he’s a movie star. If I sound a little bitter, I am, because I believe in people learning their craft. I’d like to see these people be a brain surgeon without any experience. Unfortunately the business has really deteriorated to a terrible extent. I think people in Europe and all these other places must have a real terrible impression of America, with some of the stuff that’s coming out. They took Dukes of Hazzard just for the almighty buck and they cast it with Willie Nelson and Burt Reynolds and Jessica Simpson; they had them smoking pot and using four-letter words. They actually almost crippled the memory of seven years that we put on the screen with good family entertainment; and just for the almighty buck, they not only made one but they made two. They were voted one of the worst movies ever made. For the almighty buck, I’m afraid that’s what’s taking over Hollywood.

MP: In the very beginning of the interview, we talked about how the majority of your career has been in westerns. At any time, did you ever feel typecast by genre?

James: Well I was. To be very honest with you, as I say, I was born in Kentucky and raised in southern Indiana, and had a fairly thick southern accent. It was quite a handicap until I finally corrected that, at least to a large percentage. So they did cast me an awful lot in westerns, but during that particular time, there were so many westerns on TV, you couldn’t turn down a job; you’d just go from one to the next. Once you built a reputation of being a competent actor and could ride a horse and were physical, it was not difficult to get a job. But I didn’t mind being typecast as a western type because I did five movies with Audie Murphy, and of course he and I became good friends. I met such wonderful people doing those particular types of shows; the types of people that I like are real down to earth.

MP: You just talked a second ago about the Dukes of Hazzard movies that came out, and now as you may have seen, they’re starting to remake television shows. They’ve remade Hawaii Five-O and they’re talking about remaking Dallas as a television show.

James: (Laughs) There’s not too many braves in Hollywood that are creative. The only creative thing is “We’ll make a sequel!” Well I’m as guilty as the next but I made my sequel at least as something I did 52 years ago and wanted to do a sequel way back then just for fun. But they’re not doing it for fun. Look, they made Titanic – five times – and everybody knew the ending (laughs), so they couldn’t do a real sequel. They’ve used up all the comic strips now, and then they’ll use up all the old series. They did True Grit – how are you going to top John Wayne doing True Grit? I don’t care who you put in there!

MP: So you wouldn’t like if they redid the Dukes of Hazzard as a television show?

James: I don’t care. They tried doing the two movies; they wouldn’t use any of us and they died on the vine because the fans absolutely got hysterical. I bet I’ve gotten 10,000 messages on my Facebook saying how they hated those movies. But they love the originals, you know, they buy up all the CDs, which is fine with me. I don’t know why they’d want to do another Dukes of Hazzard. They could do a similar one like Smokey and the Bandit; I’m sure they’ll do that too. If they did Dukes of Hazzard, I don’t think the fans would like that. I get so many complaints from people saying the sequels are not as good the original. I can understand that to a certain extent.

MP: I know you’re an animal enthusiast and a painter. Can you talk a little bit about that and some of the other things you do?

James: I paint every day. We just built a beautiful home here in North Carolina and my wife designed the house. She designed me a beautiful art studio and I sell an awful lot of art on my webpage, JamesBest.com. Actually I took painting up later in life, when I was about 35 I guess, and I took it up more as a hobby. But gradually as I made all the mistakes that you can possibly make, and I started improving, I started selling my paintings. Now, I’m really blessed by having people commission me to do painting from all over the world. Then we formed our own movie company here called Best Friend Films, and we have those new Red cameras. Are you familiar with those?

MP: No, I’ve never heard of them.

James: Well film has gone completely out, I knew that five years ago. They’re shooting all digital. Now when they shoot, they don’t ever have to reload the camera with film, they don’t have to worry about it getting messed up in color correction. Film cost $1500 a minute to shoot and process and all that. With these new cameras, you can shoot all day long with one chip. It really helps you as far as your production costs are concerned, so we got two of those and we also have two of the Panasonic 900s, which is the next thing up to the Reds. There’s 14 Reds being nominated for Academy Awards this year, [films] that have been shot on the Reds. So that’s what happening. We’re on the cutting edge and we’re in the loop as far as what is really being used. We run our cameras all over the world.

MP: I’ve been speaking with James Best, a classic film and television actor. As you heard, he recently completed his autobiography Best in Hollywood: The Good, The Bad, & The Beautiful. James, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoyed the interview and I hope we can speak again sometime.

James: Well Gary, thank you very much. I’m very pleased and I’m very honored to be on your show. Anytime, give me a buzz, I’m always available.

MP: I sure will!

James: Thank you very much!