Dead, Deader, Best

Or

Best in Peace 

Or

Just a Dead Old Boy

(Props to Patrick)

Or

Welcome Home Roscoe Coltrane

(Huzzah for Phil)

Or

He's Leaving - Rosco Coltrane from Georgia

(Additional accolades for Phil)

James Best, who used overturned metal tanks to escape The Killer Shrews, has died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 88. Best is best remembered as the inept, vaguely corrupt sheriff of Hazard County, forever chasing Bo and Luke (and briefly Coy and Vance) Duke for no apparent reason and toward no discernible end, with his barely sentient bloodhound Flash at his side and a kewkewkew in his heart. Best had hundreds of roles to his credit, including virtually every TV Western of the 1950s and ’60s, plus plenty of big screen oaters. He also has the rare distinction of having major roles in three episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Grave, The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank, and Jess-Belle. With such a long string of success to his credit, Best clearly was intended to teach acting, where he counted among his students Quentin Tarantino, and you can see Best’s fingerprints in Jimmie Dimmick, the dorky dressing, gourmet coffee drinking friend of Jules Winnfield, who refuses to take ownership of Marvin’s corpse in Pulp Fiction.