March 14, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before he was a television star, James Best was orphaned at the age of three. During WWII he served with the Military Police in war-torn Germany. He became one of the hottest acting coaches in Hollywood training the likes of Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Glen Campbell, Quentin Tarantino, and Regis Philbin.
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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 Wiesbad, 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 basilica in fight
the Russians with tanks. Uh, I said, they were rough. Well,
we had to clean up the town. Being so I
(01:34):
was getting shot at more most people did in the war,
you know. And I was going up to get a
cup of coffee in 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 hell bit, I said, come here please, and
German and she she said, I beg your pardon. I said,
(01:55):
are you an American? And she said yes, And I said,
what's going on? I said, what is the c He
said a civilian actress, technician. And I said, uh, 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
(02:16):
up after the play. 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 a go
the 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
(02:38):
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. I'm I'm
(03:01):
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. I started acting,
(03:22):
and I acted with these professional people and learned my craft.
So later on, when I came back to the States,
I hitchhikeed 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
winn Stock and then put under contract Universal nineteen forty
nine and now I was there for two years. So
(03:44):
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 remakes of things
that we did forty years ago. Only only one thing
that it's different is that they used four letter words
(04:05):
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, just knocked him on
(04:27):
his backside. I'd put a little chocolate syrup called 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 did Kane Mutiney with Boguard.
I did Naked and Dead, you know. And Jimmy and
Jimmy Stewart with my Oncon. I did five movies with him.
(04:48):
I did Chinanda, Fire Creek, Mountain Road, Hawkins Centers, Fella
and so forth. I was doing Mountain Road. And mister
Stewart in real life flew twenty three combat missions in
World War Two. And while we were up there an
Act of Congress they made mister Stewart a general. And
(05:09):
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 Stewart. Yes, this is mister Stewart. Let me
ask you. Do you have any wine? And they said, well, yes, sir,
(05:30):
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. Should
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 he said yeah. Well, I said,
(05:53):
missus Stewart. I used your your voice to get two
bottles of very fine French wine. But I said, and
he said, well who's going to pay for that?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
God love him. He he loved for me to imitate him.
He'd always pretend like he was upset, but he wasn't
that doll. He wanted me to do it, get me
in a position where I would have to try to
imitate him.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
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 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.
(06:40):
And they said, I said, you're going to shoot it
in Connor, Georgia. The fishing's good, the people are nice,
and they're going to 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 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,
(07:02):
what what is is mis a sheriff? And I said,
how do you want me to play? They said, well,
we would 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 called Free on a County. I said, 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,
(07:24):
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,
I did what I used to do with my little
girls when they were a little and I seek chasing
themy I going, don't get you a little rusk. Well,
(07:48):
they fell off their chair and they signed me. I
was the first one they put under contract.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
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 Congress, Georgia, and then
they moved it back to that cesspool called l A.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Whoa, whoa, look at their fa there, No God, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I love it. It's hot.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
In Pursuit of Time Flies.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
My name is Jefferson Davis Hall.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh to g.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Until two?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Might you be.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Bush?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You know who I am? Russ Cool Rush, Copie Coltrane.
Something wrong with his eyes? It's his head insanity is
suffering from a temporary case of Ami. Who is this
(08:55):
lovely lady? Oh? Luke, that's your wife? My why? Yeah? Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
That's you in the picture, though.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Ain't it? You should have shot the other side the profile.
You much got your arm right around my life. I
love her very what's going on between the two of you?
We mean as she's your wife, but she's my sister.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Ooh your sister?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
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 was Saw and I came about Actually
at first, uh, Saw 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 wouldn do
sort of a modern day Laurel Hardy type of thing.
And if Roscoe likes boss Hog, there may be other
(09:51):
people will like him too. And it did. It worked
very well, and that's why we go whooah, 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
(10:11):
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.
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
Pee Coltrane of the Dukes of Hazard here on our
American
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Stories, flat in the system, lack of two modern day
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 Wiesbad, 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 basilica in fight
the Russians with tanks. Uh, I said, they were rough. Well,
we had to clean up the town. Being so I
(01:34):
was getting shot at more most people did in the war,
you know. And I was going up to get a
cup of coffee in 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 hell bit, I said, come here please, and
German and she she said, I beg your pardon. I said,
(01:55):
are you an American? And she said yes, And I said,
what's going on? I said, what is the c He
said a civilian actress, technician. And I said, uh, 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
(02:16):
up after the play. 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 a go
the 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
(02:38):
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. I'm I'm
(03:01):
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. I started acting,
(03:22):
and I acted with these professional people and learned my craft.
So later on, when I came back to the States,
I hitchhikeed 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
winn Stock and then put under contract Universal nineteen forty
nine and now I was there for two years. So
(03:44):
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 remakes of things
that we did forty years ago. Only only one thing
that it's different is that they used four letter words
(04:05):
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, just knocked him on
(04:27):
his backside. I'd put a little chocolate syrup called 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 did Kane Mutiney with Boguard.
I did Naked and Dead, you know. And Jimmy and
Jimmy Stewart with my Oncon. I did five movies with him.
(04:48):
I did Chinanda, Fire Creek, Mountain Road, Hawkins Centers, Fella
and so forth. I was doing Mountain Road. And mister
Stewart in real life flew twenty three combat missions in
World War Two. And while we were up there an
Act of Congress they made mister Stewart a general. And
(05:09):
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 Stewart. Yes, this is mister Stewart. Let me
ask you. Do you have any wine? And they said, well, yes, sir,
(05:30):
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. Should
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 he said yeah. Well, I said,
(05:53):
missus Stewart. I used your your voice to get two
bottles of very fine French wine. But I said, and
he said, well who's going to pay for that?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
God love him. He he loved for me to imitate him.
He'd always pretend like he was upset, but he wasn't
that doll. He wanted me to do it, get me
in a position where I would have to try to
imitate him.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
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 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.
(06:40):
And they said, I said, you're going to shoot it
in Connor, Georgia. The fishing's good, the people are nice,
and they're going to 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 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,
(07:02):
what what is is mis a sheriff? And I said,
how do you want me to play? They said, well,
we would 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 called Free on a County. I said, 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,
(07:24):
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,
I did what I used to do with my little
girls when they were a little and I seek chasing
themy I going, don't get you a little rusk. Well,
(07:48):
they fell off their chair and they signed me. I
was the first one they put under contract.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
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 Congress, Georgia, and then
they moved it back to that cesspool called l A.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Whoa, whoa, look at their fa there, No God, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I love it. It's hot.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
In Pursuit of Time Flies.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
My name is Jefferson Davis Hall.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Oh to g.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Until two?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Might you be.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Bush?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You know who I am? Russ Cool Rush, Copie Coltrane.
Something wrong with his eyes? It's his head insanity is
suffering from a temporary case of Ami. Who is this
(08:55):
lovely lady? Oh? Luke, that's your wife? My why? Yeah? Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
That's you in the picture, though.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Ain't it? You should have shot the other side the profile.
You much got your arm right around my life. I
love her very what's going on between the two of you?
We mean as she's your wife, but she's my sister.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Ooh your sister?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
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 was Saw and I came about Actually
at first, uh, Saw 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 wouldn do
sort of a modern day Laurel Hardy type of thing.
And if Roscoe likes boss Hog, there may be other
(09:51):
people will like him too. And it did. It worked
very well, and that's why we go whooah, 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
(10:11):
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.
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
Pee Coltrane of the Dukes of Hazard here on our
American
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Stories, flat in the system, lack of two modern day
Robin Hoo
Host
Lee Habeeb
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