James Best

James Best
Date of Birth: 26 Jul 1926
Country: USA
Total Credits at Criticker: 55 (Actor), 2 (Writer)
Biography submitted by Dunstan-xxx and picture by Moribunny
Find more information about James Best at The Internet Movie Database
Titles you haven't rated - Actor (55) | Writer (2)
Winchester \
Lin McAdam rides into town on the trail of Dutch Henry Brown, only to find himself in a shooting competition against him.
Forbidden Planet
A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet's colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has. (imdb)
Shock Corridor
Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist, is determined to win a Pulitzer Prize by solving a murder committed... (imdb)
Rolling Thunder
Major Charles Rane comes back from the war and is given a number of gifts from his hometown because he is a war hero. (imdb)
Nickelodeon
This homage to the childhood days of the motion pictures starts in 1910, when the young attorney Leo Harrigan by chance meets a motion picture producer. Immediately he's invited to become a writer for him - the start of a sensational career... (imdb)
The Killer Shrews
A disparate group are trapped on a remote island by a hurricane. On the island, a doctor works to make humans twice as small as we already are. This, apparently, will help prevent over population. Unfortunately, his experiments have also created some giant shrews. As the shrews run out of smaller animals to eat, they move in on the people in the house. (imdb)
Ride Lonesome
A wanted murderer, Billy John, is captured by Ben Brigade, a bounty hunter, who intends to take him to Santa Cruz to be hanged. Brigade stops at a staging post, where he saves the manager's wife from an Indian attack, and enlists the help of two outlaws to continue his journey more safely.(imdb)
The Naked and the Dead
In the Pacific during World War 2, the officers live a comfortable life with good food, good drink and good quarters. To them, war is a game which they know they will win and the common soldiers are the pawns on the board. When the campaign slows down, the Commander sends a squad to the top of a mountain behind enemy lines to report on the Japanese troop movements. The squad is commanded by a tough cynical Sergeant who takes no prisoners and even takes the gold from the teeth of the enemy dead.... (imdb)
Verboten!
A young American serviceman, stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his position with the Marshall Plan relief effort by breaking the non-fraternisatiom rule and falling in love with a young German woman. He uses his position to obtain food and luxuries for her that are in short supply, and all seems to be going well for the couple. What he doesn't realise is that the Werewolves, the Nazi guerrilla movement, have plans in which he features heavily. (imdb)
The Raid
A group of confederate prisoners escape to Canada and plan to rob the banks and set fire to the small town of Saint Albans in Vermont. To get the lie of the land, their leader spends a few days in the town and finds he is getting drawn into its life and especially into that of an attractive widow and her son. (imdb)
Moondance Alexander
Inspired by a true story, Moondance Alexander follows a spirited teen named Moondance, who lives with her eccentric mother. Moondance is faced with another uneventful summer until she discovers a lost pinto pony named Checkers that has jumped out of his paddock. She returns the horse to his rightful owner, the gruff and mysterious Dante Longpre. But Moondance is convinced that Checkers is a champion jumper in disguise and is determined to help him realize his full potential... (The Big Picture)
The Left Handed Gun
William Bonney - Billy the Kid - gets a job with a cattleman known as 'The Englishman,' and is befriended by the peaceful, religious man. But when a crooked sheriff and his men murder the Englishman because he plans to supply the local Army fort with his beef, Billy decides to avenge the death by killing the four men responsible... (imdb)
Firecreek
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town. (IMDb)
The Cimarron Kid
Murphy comes into his own as a Western star in this story. Wrongly accused by crooked railroad officials of aiding a train heist by his old friends the Daltons, he joins their gang and becomes an active participant in other robberies. Betrayed by a fellow gang member, Murphy becomes a fugitive in the end. Seeking refuge at the ranch of a reformed gang member, he hopes to flee with the man's daughter to South America, but he's captured in the end and led off to jail. The girl promises to wait. (imdb)
Sounder
The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. (imdb)
The Rack
Captain Edward Hall returns to the USA after two years in a prison camp in the korean war. In the camp he was brainwashed and helped the Chinese convince the other prisoners that they were fighting an unjust war. When he comes back he is charged for collaboration with the enemy. Where does loyalty end in a prison camp, when the camp is a living hell? (imdb)
Three on a Couch
An artist has an opportunity to go to Paris and wants to bring his fiancee along. However, she's a psychiatrist who currently has three female patients who don't like men. So, he guises himself as three different men to gauge their trust and hopefully cure them so that his fiancee can go with him. (imdb)
Apache Drums
A gambler is thrown out of a western town, but returns when the town is suddenly threatened by a band of marauding Apaches. (imdb)
Seminole
At Fort King, Florida, in 1835, Lt. Lance Caldwell (Rock Hudson) is charged with the murder of a sentry. At his court martial, he recounts the story of the fragile peace between the settlers and the native Seminole Indians and how that peace is threatened by the strict fort commander, Maj. (Wikipedia)
The Mountain Road
An American officer helps villagers against the Japanese during WWII. (TCM.com)
Cast a Long Shadow
A young man without surname inherits a big indebted ranch and has to prove his worthiness managing a cattle drive. (imdb)
The Quick Gun
Gunslinger Murphy helps an ungrateful town fight off a raid by his former gang. (imdb)
Run Simon Run
A Papago Indian returns to his reservation after a prison term and searches for his brother's killer. (imdb)
The Brain Machine
Several people volunteer for a scientific experiment about mind-reading and memory, but the experiment goes horribly wrong. (imdb)
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Ma and Pa are trying to raise enough money at the county fair to send their daughter Rosie to college. Ma competes in baking and Pa enters a trotter in a horse race, while Rosie takes up with handsome young Marvin Johnson. (imdb)
Hot Tamale
A road trip to Los Angeles inadvertently leads a young man from Wyoming into a wild maze of psychotic hit-men, racy women, jewel thieves and a salsa band. (imdb)
Come Next Spring
Matt Ballot has returned home after 12 years of hard drinking in all 48 states. His wife has managed to raise their 14 year daughter and 12 year old sun nicely without his help. Matt is considered a disgrace to the town he came from and now he finds himself trying to win the love of his children, his wife and the respect of the towns people. Set in Arkansas in the 1920's. (imdb)
Cole Younger, Gunfighter
The scene is post-Civil War Texas, when the state was under the despotic control of the "bluebellies"-corrupt law enforcement officials, answerable only to carpetbagger-governer E. J. Davis. Persecuting Texans in general and Rebel sympathizers in particular, the bluebellies make life hell for everyone with whom they come in contact. Only a few courageous souls like Kit (James Best) are willing to stand up to these uniformed bullies, and in so doing they find themselves branded as outlaws. (All Movie)
Francis Goes to West Point
Francis the talking mule gets his owner in and out of trouble while he is taking basic training at West Point. (imdb)
The Savage Bees
In this horror-drama the festive fun of the annual Mardi Gras celebration is brought to a halt when a swarm of African killer bees escape from a foreign freighter. (imdb)
About Face
Three friends enter military school together, but 2 of them don't know that the 3rd one is secretly married. (imdb)
Hot Summer Night
A big-city reporter between jobs is traveling with his wife through a small Ozarks town and gets a lead on a bank robbery. He tracks down the brutal gang that committed the robbery, only to discover that they are something of a source of pride to the locals. His hopes of getting back into the big time with this story are dashed when his "interview" with the gang leader goes awry and he and his wife find themselves hostages. (imdb)
Last of the Badmen
Chicago detectives in the 1880s head west to find the killers of their colleague. (imdb)
Black Spurs
A dissatisfied ranch hand becomes a bounty hunter. He conspires with a crooked town boss to dirty up a neighboring village where a valuable railroad franchise is headed, in order to divert it to the town the boss owns. Then, he finds that his former fiancée is married to the sheriff of the town he seeks to destroy. (imdb)
Seven Angry Men
Rise, fall and execution of John Brown, fanatic abolitionist. (imdb)
The Yellow Tomahawk
When the army insists on building a fort on Indian land, in defiance of a treaty, the warnings of a scout go unheeded. (imdb)
Calling Homicide
Two homicide detectives search for a connection between the car-bombing murder of a fellow investigator and the mutilation murder of a much-hated owner of a modeling school. (imdb)
Air Cadet
A group of cadets have assorted problems at the U.S. Air Force Pilot Training Academy. (imdb)
Black Gold
Two friends join together to strike oil during the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1920s, and wind up fighting over the same oil wells and the same girl. (imdb)
First to Fight
Jack is the sole survivor of a Japanese attack on his squad at Guadalcanal. Because of his heroism and the fact that he is still alive, he becomes a Medal of Honor hero. He returns to train new recruits for the Marines and falls for a girl named Peggy. When training and marriage leave him with an empty feeling, he decides on a transfer back to the front lines. Soon he will find that marriage and life will change his outlook on the grueling battles that lie ahead. (imdb)
Ode To Billy Joe
Billy Joe confesses his love to the lovely Bobbi Lee only to cover his growing fear that he may, in fact, be homosexual. One night, at a barn dance, he gets a little drunk and rather than going with the hired whores, gives into his desires and sexual relations with an unnamed man. The guilt causes him to run away, hide in the woods and eventually confess everything to Bobbi Lee who doesn't want to believe him only because she was enjoying the forbidden nature of their love.
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood
The Duke Boys and company travel to Hollywood to sell some musical recordings in order to raise money to build a new hospital in Hazzard County. However, when their recordings and money are stolen, they wind up on the run from mysterious hitmen, sleazy record producers, Russian gangsters, and vicious loan sharks. (imdb)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!
The Good Ole Boys return to try to save Hazzard Swamp and Uncle Jesse's farm from being destroyed by a crooked developer's (Mama Josephine Max) plans to build a theme park. To do so, they have to dust off the General Lee and win a cross-country moonshine race. The plot thickens when Mama Max stops at nothing to prevent Bo and Luke from running in the race, including kidnapping Daisy. (imdb)
The Dukes of Hazzard
The adventures of the fast-drivin', rubber-burnin' Duke boys of Hazzard County. (imdb)
Return from the Sea
A hardened career navel officer must come to terms with adapting to civilian life with the help of a waitress that can see through his tough veneer.
Return of the Killer Shrews
Fifty-three years after being attacked by killer shrews on a remote island, Captain Thorne Sherman is hired by a reality television crew to return to the island in question. The shrews attack again in short order.
Man on the Prowl
A psychotic man murders a date who resists his advances, and stalks another woman after killing his mother.
Death Mask
Wilbur works in an old carnival and shows some gruesome things to the public. He covers his face because he had a sadistic father who burned his face as a child. Everybody makes jokes about his scars and when the new boss fires him, he goes to an old swamp-witch who gives him a piece of wood from a hanging tree. Wilbur makes a mask from this piece of wood and puts all his anger in this mask. When he puts the mask on, everybody who looks at him commits suicide.
The Twilight Zone
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Fugitive
The Guns of Will Sonnett
Steel Town
Steve Kostain (Lund), nephew of the owner, begins working at a steel mill to learn the business from the bottom up. He rooms with a steel working family, the McNamaras, and falls for the daughter, "Red" (Sheridan), who is already involved with another steelworker, Jim (Duff.) Although he is at first has a hard time with his co-workers, he eventually wins them over, and also wins the girl.
Skip Taylor
Skip Taylor (1953) - TV Movie
This USAF flight training recruitment film follows a trio of aviation cadets as they struggle through the initial "Pre-flight" phase of their training. Dreams of future flying adventures motivate the cadets to persevere and succeed.