67 Facts About James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor who was featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career.

In 1998, James Coburn won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.

James Coburn's father and namesake was of Scots-Irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from Sweden.

James Coburn's father had a garage business in Laurel that was destroyed by the Great Depression.

James Coburn was raised in Compton, California, where he attended Compton Junior College.

In 1950, James Coburn was drafted in the United States Army, where he served as a truck driver and occasionally a disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas.

James Coburn narrated Army training films in Mainz, West Germany.

James Coburn attended Los Angeles City College, where he studied acting with fellow future actor Jeff Corey under Stella Adler's tutelage, and later made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Herman Melville's Billy Budd.

James Coburn was selected for a Remington Products razor commercial, where he was able to shave off 11 days of beard growth in less than 60 seconds while joking that he had more teeth to show on camera than the other 12 candidates for the part.

James Coburn soon got a job in another Western, Face of a Fugitive.

James Coburn appeared in dozens of television roles, including, with Roberts, several episodes of NBC's Bonanza.

James Coburn appeared twice each on two other NBC Westerns: Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson, one episode in the role of Butch Cassidy; and The Restless Gun with John Payne in "The Pawn" and "The Way Back", the latter segment alongside Bonanza's Dan Blocker.

James Coburn's third film was a major breakthrough for him, as the knife-wielding Britt in The Magnificent Seven, directed by John Sturges for the Mirisch Company.

James Coburn was hired on the recommendation of his friend Robert Vaughn.

When Klondike was cancelled, Taeger and James Coburn were regrouped as detectives in Mexico in NBC's equally short-lived Acapulco.

James Coburn made two guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason, both times as the murder victim, in "The Case of the Envious Editor" and "The Case of the Angry Astronaut".

James Coburn had a good role in Hell Is for Heroes, a war film with Steve McQueen.

James Coburn followed it with another war film with McQueen, The Great Escape, directed by Sturges for the Mirisches, where Coburn played an Australian POW.

James Coburn was one of the villains in Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

James Coburn followed that role playing a glib naval officer in Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily, replacing James Garner, who had moved up to the lead role when William Holden pulled out.

James Coburn had another excellent supporting role as a one-armed Indian tracker in Major Dundee, directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Charlton Heston.

James Coburn had a cameo in the black comedy The Loved One.

Back at Fox, James Coburn made a second Flint film, In Like Flint, which was popular, but James Coburn did not wish to make any more movies in that series.

James Coburn went over to Paramount for a Western comedy, Waterhole No 3 and the political satire The President's Analyst.

In 1967, James Coburn was voted the 12th-biggest star in Hollywood.

Over at Columbia, James Coburn was in a Swinging '60s heist film, Duffy, which flopped.

James Coburn was one of several stars who had cameos in Candy, then played a hitman in Hard Contract for Fox, another flop.

James Coburn tried a change of pace, an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play, Last of the Mobile Hot Shots directed by Sidney Lumet, but the film was not popular.

In 1964, James Coburn said he would do A Fistful of Dollars if they paid him $25,000, which was too expensive for the production's tiny budget.

So, too, was The Honkers, where James Coburn played a rodeo rider.

James Coburn went back to Italy to make another Western, A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die, or Massacre at Fort Holman.

James Coburn then reteamed with director Sam Peckinpah for the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, playing Pat Garrett.

In 1973, James Coburn was among the featured celebrities dressed in prison gear on the cover of the album Band on the Run made by Paul McCartney and his band Wings.

James Coburn was one of the pallbearers at the funeral of Bruce Lee along with Steve McQueen, Bruce's brother, Robert Lee, Peter Chin, Danny Inosanto, and Taky Kimura.

James Coburn was one of several stars in the popular The Last of Sheila.

James Coburn then starred in a series of thrillers: Harry in Your Pocket and The Internecine Project.

James Coburn began to drop back down the credit list: he was third billed in writer-director Richard Brooks' film Bite the Bullet behind Gene Hackman and Candice Bergen.

James Coburn co-starred with Charles Bronson in Hard Times, the directorial debut of Walter Hill, but it was very much Bronson's film.

James Coburn played the lead in the action film Sky Riders, then played Charlton Heston's antagonist in The Last Hard Men.

James Coburn was one of the many stars in Midway, then had the star role in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron playing a German soldier.

Peckinpah and James Coburn remained close friends until Peckinpah's death in 1984.

James Coburn returned to television in 1978 to star in a three-part miniseries version of a Dashiell Hammett detective novel, The Dain Curse, tailoring his character to bear a physical resemblance to the author.

James Coburn supported himself in later years by exporting rare automobiles to Japan.

James Coburn was deeply interested in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, and collected sacred Buddhist artwork.

James Coburn narrated a film about the 16th Karmapa called The Lion's Roar.

James Coburn starred in Firepower with Sophia Loren, replacing Charles Bronson when the latter pulled out.

James Coburn had a cameo in The Muppet Movie and had leading roles in Goldengirl and The Baltimore Bullet.

James Coburn was Shirley MacLaine's husband in Loving Couples and had the lead in a Canadian film, Crossover.

In 1981, James Coburn moved almost entirely into supporting roles, such as those of the villains in both High Risk and Looker.

James Coburn hosted a TV series of the horror-anthology type, Darkroom, in 1981 and 1982.

James Coburn supported Walter Mondale's campaign in the 1984 presidential election.

James Coburn was in a four-year relationship with British singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul from the late 1970s.

James Coburn resumed his film career in the 1990s, where he appeared in supporting roles in Young Guns II, Hudson Hawk, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Maverick, Eraser, The Nutty Professor, Affliction, and Payback.

James Coburn provided the voice of Henry J Waternoose III in the Pixar animated film Monsters, Inc.

James Coburn was credited with having introduced Steve McQueen to Ferraris, and in the early 1960s, owned a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso and a Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California SWB.

James Coburn's Spyder was the 13th of just 56x built.

James Coburn imported the used car in 1964, shortly after completing The Great Escape.

James Coburn kept the car at his Beverly Hills-area home, where it was often serviced by Max Balchowsky, who worked on the suspension and frame modifications on the Mustang GTs used in the filming of McQueen's Bullitt.

James Coburn sold the Spyder in 1987 after 24 years of ownership.

From 1998 until his death, James Coburn did the voiceovers for Chevrolet's Like a Rock commercials.

James Coburn later married actress Paula Murad Coburn, on October 22,1993, in Versailles, France; they remained married until Coburn's death in 2002.

James Coburn was a martial arts student and a friend of fellow actor Bruce Lee.

James Coburn died from a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills on November 18,2002, at the age of 74.

Paula James Coburn died from cancer less than two years later, on July 30,2004, at the age of 48.

James Coburn has made a variety of flawed, pleasurable films, the merits of which invariably depend on his laconic presence.

James Coburn had that part hipster, part cool-cat aura about him.

James Coburn was one of those kind of men who were formed by the Rat Pack kind of style.