James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III was an American actor, born in Laurel, Nebraska, on 31 August 1928 and raised in Compton, California, who died on 18 November 2002. He appeared in more than 70 films and made about 100 television appearances over a career of some 45 years, after army service as a truck driver and radio disc jockey and acting study under Stella Adler's circle in Los Angeles. He began on television, with a first appearance on Four Star Playhouse in 1953 and guest parts in many Westerns, and made his film debut in Ride Lonesome in 1959. He then played leading and supporting roles in action films and Westerns, among them The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Charade, Our Man Flint, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Cross of Iron, cultivating an image of New Hollywood cool. In 1998 he won an Academy Award for his supporting role in Affliction, and in 2002 he was nominated for an Emmy as a producer of The Mists of Avalon.