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Best, who appeared in hundreds of TV episodes and films
during a Hollywood career that spanned six decades, died in
Hickory, North Carolina, following complications of pneumonia,
said Steve Latshaw, a friend and collaborator.
Best served as a military police officer in Germany during World
War Two before becoming a character actor, working alongside
leading men Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman and Humphrey Bogart in
the 1950s and 1960s.
He later founded an acting workshop in Los Angeles, where his
students included celebrities Quentin Tarantino, Burt Reynolds
and Clint Eastwood, and taught acting at universities in
Mississippi and Florida.
His greatest commercial success came from his part on "The Dukes
of Hazzard" series, which ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985 and
remained popular in reruns, keeping Best busy in his later years
with appearances at festivals and fan gatherings.
"I learned more about acting in front of a camera from Jimmie
Best in an afternoon than from anyone else in a year," said John
Schneider, who starred as Bo Duke on the show. "When asked to
cry on camera, he would say, ‘Sure thing…which eye?’"
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Lisa Lambert)
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