Scheming sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The prolific character actor best known for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard has died. James Best was 88.
His wife of 29 years, Dorothy Best, said Tuesday that Best died Monday night in hospice care in Hickory from complications of pneumonia.
Best starred on the television series that ran from 1979 to 1985. He was the lawman futilely chasing the Duke cousins, often in the company of his droopy-faced basset hound Flash. Best employed a battery of catch phrases in the role, as well as a memorable laugh that was comically villainous.
During a wide-ranging career dating several decades, he also acted in movies including The Caine Mutiny and Rolling Thunder, and he appeared on television shows including Gunsmoke and The Andy Griffith Show.
Best was an acting teacher who helped several future Hollywood stars learn how to appear more natural on camera.
Best was born in the western Kentucky community of Powderly, the youngest of eight brothers and a sister. After his mother died when he was a toddler, Best was adopted and raised in Indiana. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II and started acting in a military theater company, according to his website.
Character actor popular in horror films
Tom Towles, the mustachioed character actor who popped up in several of Rob Zombie's movies, has died. He was 71.
Towles' spokesman Tammy Dupal said in a statement Monday that the actor who appeared in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects died April 2 in Pinellas, Fla., from complications after a stroke.
Towles' memorable roles included a serial-killer sidekick in 1986's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and an obnoxious zombie apocalypse survivor in the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.
His other film credits included Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween, Grindhouse, The Pit and the Pendulum and director Michael Mann's Miami Vice.
Towles TV credits included Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, ER, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Firefly.
Stage actress who made mark in song
NEW YORK -- Julie Wilson, a musical theater actress and cabaret star who earned a Tony Award nomination and was cheered for her ability to harness the songs of Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter, has died. She was 90.
Christopher Denny, Wilson's friend, said she died Sunday in New York after having suffered two strokes over the past several days.
Wilson's most famous stage role was the 1988 Peter Allen musical Legs Diamond, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. Her other Broadway credits include Park in 1970 and The Girl in the Freudian Slip in 1967, and she was a replacement for the role of Babe Williams in the original run of The Pajama Game.
But it was as a singer -- known for her interpretations of such songwriters as Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Porter -- that made the biggest impressions, from recordings like Julie Wilson Sings the Cy Coleman Songbook to her live sets at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel.
Wilson was born Oct. 21, 1924, in Omaha, Neb., and recorded several albums, including My Old Flame, Live From the Russian Tea Room and Julie Wilson at the St. Regis.
Metro on 04/08/2015