By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday April 7, 2015
James Best, who played the bumbling sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on CBS's "Dukes of Hazzard," died of complications from pneumonia at age 88.
Best worked for more than 60 years in show business in 83 movies and 600 TV shows. But "Dukes of Hazzard" was his biggest, best known role. He had roles in "The Virginian," "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Twilight Zone," to name a few. According to imdb,com, he was most recently working on a film called "Old Soldiers."
"Dukes of Hazzard" was set in a fictional Hazzard County in Georgia and was shot in Covington and Conyers in 1979 for five episodes. The show then moved Burbank, Calif. for the duration of the series, which lasted six seasons. It peaked at No. 2 during the 1980-81 season behind only "Dallas," with 21.8 million households, which would equal about 33 million viewers a week.
His character spent years chasing after the Duke boys and giggling about the prospect:
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