Tall, lean and sporting one of the biggest grins in Hollywood, James Coburn was best known for his roles in The Magnificent Seven (1960, with Steve McQueen), Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967). He made his film debut in 1958, and early in his career he was frequently cast as a gunslinger or sidekick in both dramas and comedies. The two Flint movies showed his charm and flair for comedy, as did the political satire The President's Analyst (1967), which he also produced. Coburn collaborated several times with director Sam Peckinpah during the 1970s, in front of the camera for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Cross of Iron (1977), and behind the camera for 1978's Convoy (second unit director) and 1979's Circle of Iron (story). Due to crippling arthritis, Coburn was less active in the '80s and '90s, although he continued to work steadily in movies and television. A longtime Hollywood star, he finally won an Oscar for his portrayal of a mean drunk in Paul Schrader's Affliction (1998, starring Nick Nolte and Willem Dafoe). His other films include Charade (1963, with Cary Grant), The Great Escape (1963), Payback (1999, with Mel Gibson) and Monsters, Inc. (2001, as the voice of Henry J. Waternoose III).
Career Highlights: The Last of Sheila, The Loved One, The Magnificent Seven
First Major Screen Credit: The Ten Commandments (1956)
Biography
James Coburn was an actor whose style allowed him to comfortably embrace drama, action, and comedy roles, and many of his best-known performances found him blending elements of all these styles in roles that overflowed with charisma and a natural charm.
Born in Laurel, NE, on August 31, 1928, Coburn relocated to California as a young man, and first developed an interest in acting while studying at Los Angeles City College. After appearing in several student productions, he decided to take a stab at acting as a profession, and enrolled in the theater department at U.C.L.A. Coburn earned his first notable reviews in an adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd, staged at Los Angeles' La Jolla Playhouse, which starred Vincent Price. In the early '50s, Coburn moved to New York City, where he studied acting with Stella Adler, and began working in commercials and live television. In 1958, Coburn won a recurring role on a Western TV series called Bronco, and scored his first film role the following year in Budd Boetticher's Ride Lonesome, starring Randolph Scott. For a while, Coburn seemed to find himself typecast as a heavy in Westerns, most notably in The Magnificent Seven, and later starred in two action-oriented TV series, Klondike (which ran for 18 weeks between 1960 and 1961) and Acapulco (which lasted a mere eight weeks in 1961). However, after a strong showing in the war drama Hell Is for Heroes, Coburn finally got to play a big-screen hero as part of the ensemble cast of 1963's The Great Escape. In 1964, Coburn got a chance to show his flair for comedy in The Americanization of Emily, and in 1965 he appeared in Major Dundee, the first of several films he would make with iconoclastic director Sam Peckinpah.
In 1966, Coburn finally hit full-fledged stardom in Our Man Flint, a flashy satiric comedy which put an American spin on the James Bond-style superspy films of the period. Coburn's deft blend of comic cheek and action heroics as Derek Flint made the film a major box-office success, and in 1967 he appeared in a sequel, In Like Flint, as well as two similar action comedies, Duffy and the cult film The President's Analyst (the latter of which Coburn helped produce). Moving back and forth between comedies (Candy, Harry in Your Pocket), Westerns (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), and dramas (The Last of Shelia, Cross of Iron), Coburn was in high demand through much of the 1970s. He also dabbled in screenwriting (he penned a script for his friend Bruce Lee which was filmed after Lee's death as Circle of Iron, starring David Carradine) and directing (he directed an episode of the TV series The Rockford Files, as well as handling second-unit work on Sam Peckinpah's Convoy). By the end of the decade, however, his box-office allure was not what it once was, although he remained a potent draw in Japan.
Coburn remained busy in the 1980s, with supporting roles in theatrical films, larger roles in television projects, and voice-over work for documentaries. In 1979, Coburn was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and in the mid-'80s, when his illness failed to respond to conventional treatment, he began to cut back on his work schedule. But in the 1990s, a holistic therapist was able to treat Coburn using nutritional supplements, and he began appearing onscreen with greater frequency (he also appeared in a series of instructional videos on gambling strategies, one of Coburn's passions). He won a 1999 Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his intense portrayal of an abusive father in Paul Schrader's film Affliction, and the award kick-started Coburn's career. He would work on more than a dozen projects over the next two years, but Coburn then succumbed to a heart attack in 2002. Coburn was survived by two children, James H. Coburn IV and Lisa Coburn, his former spouse Beverly Kelly, and Paula Murad, his wife at the time of his death. ~ All Movie Guide
James Harrison Coburn, Jr.[1] (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002)[2] was an American film and television actor who appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances in his 45-year career. Perhaps best remembered for his natural charisma and charm,[3][4] he played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Affliction (1998).[5]
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.[1] He grew up in Compton, California, and attended Compton Junior College. He enlisted in the US Army in 1950 serving as a disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas and narrated Army training films in Mainz, Germany.[6] Attending Los Angeles City College he studied acting with Jeff Corey and Stella Adler then made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Billy Budd.[7] Coburn was selected for a Remington Products razor commercial when he was able to shave off eleven days of beard growth in less than 60 seconds[8] whilst joking that he had more teeth to show on camera than the other 12 candidates for the part.[9]
He appeared in dozens of television roles, including with Pernell Roberts again in some episodes of Bonanza. He and Ralph Taeger co-starred with Joi Lansing in Klondike on NBC in the 1960–1961 season. When Klondike, set in the Alaskangold rush town of Skagway, was cancelled, Taeger and Coburn were regrouped as detectives in Mexico in NBC's equally short-lived Acapulco.
In 1966, he became a bona-fide movie star with the release of Our Man Flint, a James Bond spoof released by 20th Century Fox. After a sequel, he decided to branch off into the independent film world. Due to his interests in martial arts (which he discovered by training with Bruce Lee), Buddhism, and gong-playing, the remainder of the decade (which included less-than-memorable films) proved relatively uneventful in his career.
In 1971, he starred in the western A Fistful of Dynamite, a.k.a. "Duck, You Sucker," directed by Sergio Leone, as an Irish explosives expert and revolutionary who has fled to Mexico during the time of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th Century.
He teamed up with director Sam Peckinpah for the 1973 film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (they had worked together in 1965 on Major Dundee). An MGM producer tried to sabotage the production, causing the film to be drastically edited when it opened. Peckinpah and Coburn were greatly disappointed and turned next to Cross of Iron, a critically acclaimed war epic which performed poorly in the U.S. but was a huge hit in Europe. The two remained good friends until the legendary director's death in 1984.
Due to severe rheumatoid arthritis, he was featured in very few films during the 1980s. Though Coburn's hands were clearly visibly gnarled in film appearances in the last years of his career, the sturdy actor continued working nonetheless. He spent much of his time writing songs with British singer-songwriter Lynsey De Paul and doing television such as his work on Darkroom. He claimed to have healed himself with pills containing a sulfur-based compound and returned to the screen in the 1990s, appearing in films such as Young Guns II, Sister Act 2, Maverick, The Nutty Professor, Affliction (for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his vivid portrayal of the abusive father of Nick Nolte) and Payback, mostly in minor but memorable roles. Affliction also saw Coburn receive Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Death
Coburn died on November 18, 2002, aged 74, suffering a heart attack, while listening to music with his wife at their Beverly Hills home. He was survived by his wife, Paula Coburn (née Murad)[11], as well as a son and a stepdaughter. At the time of his death, he was the voice of the "Like a Rock" Chevrolet television ad campaign. Actor James Garner succeeded Coburn for the remainder of the ad campaign. His ashes were interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, marked by a stone bench inscribed with his name.
Aftermath
His widow, Paula Josephine Murad, a native of Jamaica before moving to Ohio as a child, had hosted a TV show in Washington, D.C., before moving to California in the 1980s. Murad (who was 28 years Coburn's junior) married Coburn in 1993 and as an actress made a few film and television appearances under the name Paula O'Hara. The Coburns were also involved in charities and together founded the James and Paula Coburn Foundation (JPCF), which supports such beneficiaries as the Motion Picture & Television Fund, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, LACMA, the Clairbourn School, KCET public television, and Operation Smile. She continued this work, in addition to attempting to complete her husband's autobiography, until her death from cancer at the age of 48 on July 30, 2004. The JPCF continues its commitment to upholding the Coburns’ legacy, remaining active in the aforementioned charities with an additional designation for cancer research and treatment.
^Miller, Ron (1995-01-22). "Coburn's Comfort Zone at Home in Western with Heston and Berenger Supporting". San Jose Mercury News: p. 6. "JAMES COBURN began his movie career in a saddle 36 years ago, playing the gangly and not-too-bright sidekick to bad guy Pernell Roberts in the 1959 Randolph Scott western "Ride Lonesome.""
