James Coburn

This article is about the American actor. For the New Hampshire politician and businessman, see Jim Coburn.

James Coburn
Coburn in Charade, 1963
Born	James Harrison Coburn Jr.
Years active	1958 – 2002
Spouse(s)	Beverly Kelly (1959–1979) Paula Murad (1993–2002)

James Harrison Coburn, Jr. (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an Academy Award-winning American actor.

Biography

Early life

Coburn was born in Laurel, Nebraska, the son of Mylet S. (née Johnson) and James Harrison Coburn, Sr., a garage mechanic. His maternal grandparents were immigrants from Sweden. He grew up in Compton, California and acted in college, eventually making his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Career

Coburn became famous in the 1960s and 1970s as the "tough guy" in a variety of films, first mostly with his friends Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn and Charles Bronson (with whom he co-starred in The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape). A villainous part in the hugely successful Charade (1963) and a character role as a one-armed Indian tracker in Major Dundee (1965) gained him much notice. In 1966, he finally became a bona-fide star with the release of Our Man Flint, a James Bond spoof released by 20th Century Fox as competition. After a sequel, he decided to branch off into the independent film world. Due to his interests in karate (which he discovered by training with Bruce Lee), Buddhism, and gong-playing, the remainder of the decade (which included less-than-memorable films) proved uneventful to him.

In 1971, he starred in the western A Fistful of Dynamite, directed by Sergio Leone, where he plays as an Irish dynamite expert and revolutionary who has fled to Mexico during the time of the Mexican Revolution in the early part of the 20th century. In 1973 he teamed up with radical director Sam Peckinpah for the film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (they had first worked together in 1965 on Major Dundee). But an MGM producer tried to sabotage the production causing the film to be drastically edited when it opened. Both Peckinpah and Coburn were disappointed and delved into Cross of Iron, a critically-acclaimed war epic which performed poorly in the US but was a huge hit in Europe. The two remained good friends until the legendary director's death in 1984 of a stroke.

Due to severe rheumatoid arthritis, he featured in very few films during the 1980s and spent time writing songs with his partner at that time, British singer-songwriter Lynsey De Paul. He claimed to have healed himself with pills containing a sulfur-containing compound, and returned to screen in the 1990s. He then appeared in films such as Young Guns II (1990), Sister Act 2 (1993), Maverick (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), and Payback (1999), mostly in small but memorable roles. For appearing as the abusive father of protagonist Nick Nolte in Affliction where he received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1998.

Death

He died suddenly on November 18, 2002 at the age of 74, from a cardiac arrest, while listening to the radio. He was survived by his wife Paula Murad, a son, and a stepdaughter. At the time of his death, he was the instantly-recognizable commercial voice for Chevrolet trucks' "Like a Rock" television ad campaign. Actor James Garner replaced Coburn's voice for the remainder of the campaign. Paula Murad would later die of cancer on July 30, 2004, at the age of 49.

Filmography

Films

• Ride Lonesome (1959)
• Face of a Fugitive (1959)
• The Magnificent Seven (1960)
• The Murder Men (1961)
• Hell Is for Heroes (1962)
• The Great Escape (1963)
• Charade (1963)
• The Man from Galveston (1963)
• Kings of the Sun (1963) (narrator)
• Action on the Beach (1964) (short subject)
• The Americanization of Emily (1964)
• Major Dundee (1965)
• A High Wind in Jamaica (1965)
• The Loved One (1965)
• Our Man Flint (1966)
• What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
• Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966)
• In Like Flint (1967)
• Waterhole #3 (1967)
• The President's Analyst (1967)
• Duffy (1968)
• Candy (1968)
• Hard Contract (1969)
• Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)
• A Fistful of Dynamite (1971)
• The Carey Treatment (1972)
• The Honkers (1972)
• A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die (1972)
• The Life and Legend of Bruce Lee (1973) (documentary)
• Harry in Your Pocket (1973)
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
• The Last of Sheila (1973)
• The Internecine Project (1974)
• Bite the Bullet (1975)
• Hard Times (1975)
• Sky Riders (1976)
• The Last Hard Men (1976)
• Midway (1976)
• White Rock (1977) (documentary) (narrator)
• Bruce Lee, the Legend (1977) (documentary)
• Cross of Iron (1977)
• Speed Fever (1978) (documentary)

• California Suite (1978) (Cameo)
• Firepower (1979)
• The Muppet Movie (1979) (Cameo)
• Goldengirl (1979)
• The Baltimore Bullet (1980)
• Loving Couples (1980)
• Mr. Patman (1980)
• High Risk (1981)
• Looker (1981)
• Martin's Day (1984)
• Death of a Soldier (1986)
• Walking After Midnight (1988) (documentary)
• Call from Space (1989) (short subject)
• Crash Landing-The Rescue of Flight #232(1990-true account film)
• Train to Heaven (1990)
• Young Guns II (1990)
• Hudson Hawk (1991)
• Mastergate (1992)
• The Player (1992) (Cameo)
• Deadfall (1993)
• Curse of the Dragon (1993) (documentary)
• Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
• Maverick (1994)
• The Set Up (1995)
• Skeletons (1996)
• Eraser (1996)
• The Nutty Professor (1996)
• Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right (1996) (documentary)
• Keys to Tulsa (1997)
• The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson (1997)
• Affliction (1997)
• Payback (1999)
• The Good Doctor (2000) (short subject)
• Intrepid (2000)
• Proximity (2001)
• Texas Rangers (2001) (narrator)
• Yellow Bird (2001)
• The Man from Elysian Fields (2001)
• Monsters, Inc. (2001) (voice)
• Kurosawa (2001) (documentary)
• Snow Dogs (2002)
• American Gun (2002)

Television

• The Rifleman — "Young Englishman" (1958); "The High Country" (1961)
• Tales of Wells Fargo — "Butch Cassidy" (1958); "The Wayfarers" (1962)
• Trackdown — "Hard Lines" (1959)
• Bat Masterson — "The Black Pearls" (1959); "Six Feet of Gold" (1961)
• Wanted: Dead or Alive — "Reunion For Revenge", "The Kovack Affair" (1959); "The Trial" (1960)
• Bronco — "Payroll of the Dead" (1959); "Shadow of Jesse James" (1960)
• Have Gun Will Travel — "One Came Back" (1959); "The Gladiators" (1960)
• Klondike (1960-1961)
• Peter Gunn — "The Murder Clause" (1960)
• Lawman — "The Catcher", "The Showdown" (1960)
• The Deputy — "The Truly Yours" (1960)
• Acapulco (1961) (canceled after 8 episodes)'
• Laramie — "The Mark of the Maneaters" (1961)
• Cheyenne — "Trouble Street" (1961)
• Bonanza — "The Fugitive" (1961)
• Rawhide — "The Hostage Child" (1962)
• Combat! — "Masquerade" (1963)
• The Twilight Zone — "The Old Man In the Cave" (1963)
• The Greatest Show On Earth (1963) — "Uncaged"
• Stoney Burke — "The Test" (1963)
• Route 66 — "Kiss the Monster, Make Him Sleep" (1964)
• The Defenders — "The Man Who Saved His Country" (1964)
• Bracken's World — "Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon" (1970)
• The Dain Curse (1978) (miniseries)
• Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls (1981)
• Darkroom (1981-1982)
• Malibu (1983)

• Draw! (1984)
• Faerie Tale Theatre — "Pinocchio" (1984)
• Sins of the Father (1985)
• The Edge and Beyond (1988-1990) (narrator)
• The Infinite Voyage (host from 1990-1991)
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers (voice-over cast member from 1990-1993)
• Silverfox (1991) (pilot)
• Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1990)
• Murder She Wrote — "Day of the Dead" (1992)
• National Lampoon's True Facts (1992)
• The Fifth Corner (1992) (canceled after 6 episodes)
• Christmas Reunion (1993)
• The Hit List (1993)
• Greyhounds (1994) (pilot)
• The Avenging Angel (1995)
• Picket Fences — "Upbringings" (1995)
• Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder (1995)
• The Cherokee Kid (1996)
• The Second Civil War (1997)
• Profiler — "Shadow of Angels" (1997)
• Mr. Murder (1998)
• Noah's Ark (1999)
• Vengeance Unlimited — "Judgment" (1999)
• Shake, Rattle & Roll: An American Love Story (1999)
• Missing Pieces (2000)
• Walter and Henry (2001)
• Arli$$ (2002) — "The Immortal"

External links

• James Coburn at IMDb
• Find-A-Grave profile for James Coburn

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