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" James Best, the actor who played Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard, passed away Monday night. He was 88. Born Jewel Franklin Guy in Powderly, KY, in 1926, the actor was adopted after his mother&amp;#039;s death and chose the name Jimmy Best. Growing up during the Great Depression, Best was an avid boxer, fisher, marksman, and outdoorsman.  After enlisting with the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1944, Best served in the Military Police in Germany during and after WWII. Following his military service, Best headed to New York City, where he launched into a lifelong career of acting, writing, directing, and producing. Best held roles in numerous films and TV shows, but he&amp;#039;s almost universally known for his portrayal of Sheriff Coltrane, the bumbling lawman who played the comedic foil in the campy series that ran from 1979 to 1985. Coltrane&amp;#039;s antics usually landed him haplessly in a smashed-up patrol car after attempting a Bo-and-Luke-style jump off an inexplicably placed ramp. But while his Hazzard character was dense, Best was known to be a preeminent actor, writer, and mentor within the movie and TV industry.  His notoriety as the blundering back-country sheriff is a bit unfair to Best&amp;#039;s real-life attributes, overshadowing the more serious work from elsewhere in his career. The always-excellent Twilight Zone blog, The Night Gallery, highlights this fact with a quote from Best, who acted in three roles on the black-and-white sci-fi classic long before he became the lawman of Hazzard County: &amp;quot;I did The Dukes of Hazzard series for seven years and we had a chain of writers over there \u2014 there was so much nepotism they wouldn&amp;#039;t have allowed any good writers to come in other than their own, which is unfortunate. So consequently, I worked seven years for writers who had the imagination of a banana. The material was so hackneyed we did the same show for seven years. Now on Twilight Zone, it was really a pleasure working on something that had the quality and the marvelous writers. I was very fortunate that I got to work on The Twilight Zone three times. I am going to go to my grave with &amp;#039;Rosco P. Coltrane&amp;#039; on the headstone. I&amp;#039;d much rather go to my demise with &amp;#039;He&amp;#039;s in The Twilight Zone&amp;#039;!&amp;quot; The Dukes of Hazzard may not have been the artistic pinnacle of Best&amp;#039;s career, or TV in general, but it&amp;#039;s a beloved piece of car culture both then and now. That enduring, campy charm is as much thanks to James Best as it is to flying orange Mopar muscle.  Best is remembered as a writer, actor, mentor, teacher, artist, and friend by those who worked with him. John Schneider, who played Bo Duke on the TV series, said of him, &amp;quot;I learned more about acting in front of a camera from Jimmie Best in an afternoon than from anyone else in a year [....] I&amp;#039;m forever thankful to have cut my teeth in the company of such a fine man.&amp;quot; Read Best&amp;#039;s full obituary and biography over at his website. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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