James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III was born in Laurel, Nebraska on August 31, 1928, the son of James Harrison Coburn II (1902–1975)[6] and Mylet S. Coburn (née Johnson; 1900–1984).[7] His father was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from Sweden. The elder Coburn had a garage business that was destroyed by the Great Depression.[8] Coburn himself was raised in Compton, California, where he attended Compton Junior College.

In 1950, Coburn enlisted in the United States Army, in which he served as a truck driver and occasionally a disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas. Coburn also narrated Army training films in Mainz, Germany.[9] Coburn attended Los Angeles City College,[10] where he studied acting alongside Jeff Corey and Stella Adler, and later made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Herman Melville's Billy Budd.[11]

Coburn became a genuine star following the release of the James Bond parody film Our Man Flint (1966), playing super agent Derek Flint for Fox. The movie was a solid success at the box office.

He followed it with What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), a wartime comedy from Blake Edwards which was made for the Mirisches; Coburn was top billed. The film was a commercial disappointment. Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) was a crime movie made at Columbia.

Back at Fox, Coburn made a second Flint film, In Like Flint (1967), which was popular but Coburn did not wish to make any more. He went over to Paramount to make a Western comedy, Waterhole No. 3 (1967), and the political satire The President's Analyst (1967). Neither film performed particularly well at the box office but over the years The President's Analyst has become a cult film. In 1967 Coburn was voted the twelfth biggest star in Hollywood.[17]

Over at Columbia, Coburn was in a swinging sixties heist film, Duffy (1968) which flopped. He was one of several stars who had cameos in Candy (1968) then played a hitman in Hard Contract (1969) for Fox, another flop.

Coburn tried a change of pace, an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play, Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970) directed by Sidney Lumet, but the film was not popular.

In July 1970 Richard F Zanuck of Fox dropped the $300,000 option it had with Coburn.[18]

In 1971, Coburn starred in the Zapata Western Duck, You Sucker!, with Rod Steiger and 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. In 1964 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.[19] Duck You Sucker, also called A Fistful of Dynamite, was not as highly regarded as Leone's four previous Westerns but was hugely popular in Europe, especially France.

Back in the US he made another film with Blake Edwards, the thriller The Carey Treatment (1972). It was badly cut by MGM and was commercially unsuccessful. So too was The Honkers (1972), in which Coburn played a rodeo rider.

Coburn went back to Italy to make another Western, A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die (1973). He then re-teamed with director Sam Peckinpah for the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, in which he played Pat Garrett. In 1973 Coburn was voted the 23rd most popular star in Hollywood.[20]

In 1973, 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. 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. Coburn gave a speech: "Farewell, Brother. It has been an honor to share this space in time with you. As a friend and a teacher, you have given to me, have brought my physical, spiritual and psychological selves together. Thank you. May peace be with you"[21]

Coburn was one of several stars in the popular The Last of Sheila (1973). He then starred in a series of thrillers: Harry in Your Pocket (1974) and The Internecine Project (1975). Neither was widely seen.

Coburn began to drop back down the credit list: he was third billed in writer-director Richard Brooks' film Bite the Bullet (1975) behind Gene Hackman and Candice Bergen. He co-starred with Charles Bronson in Hard Times (1975), the directorial debut of Walter Hill, but it was very much Bronson's film. The movie was popular.

Coburn played the lead in the action film Sky Riders (1976) then played Charlton Heston's antagonist in The Last Hard Men (1976). He was one of the many stars in Midway (1976) then had the star role in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977) playing a German soldier. This critically acclaimed war epic performed poorly in the United States but was a huge hit in Europe. Peckinpah and Coburn remained close friends until Peckinpah's death in 1984.

Coburn returned to television in 1978 to star in a three-part mini-series version of a Dashiell Hammett detective novel, The Dain Curse, tailoring his character to bear a physical resemblance to the author. During that same year as a spokesman for the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, he was paid $500,000 to promote its new product in television advertisements by saying only two words: "Schlitz. Light."[22] In Japan his masculine appearance was so appealing he became an icon for its leading cigarette brand. He also supported himself in later years by exporting rare automobiles to Japan.[23] He was deeply interested in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, and collected sacred Buddhist artwork.[24] He narrated a film about the 16th Karmapa called "The Lion's Roar".[25]

Coburn starred in Firepower (1979) with Sophia Loren, replacing Charles Bronson when the latter pulled out. He had a cameo in The Muppet Movie (1979) and had leading roles in Goldengirl (1980) and The Baltimore Bullet (1980). He was Shirley MacLaine's husband in Loving Couples (1980) and had the lead in a Canadian film, Crossover (1980).

In 1981, Coburn moved almost entirely into supporting roles such as those of the villains in both High Risk (1981) and Looker (1981). He hosted a TV series of the horror-anthology type, Darkroom, in 1981 and 1982. He supported Walter Mondale's campaign in the 1984 presidential election.[26] Coburn also portrayed Dwight Owen Barnes in the PC video game C.E.O., developed by Artdink as a spin-off of its A-Train series.[27]

Because of his severe rheumatoid arthritis, Coburn appeared in very few films during the 1980s, despite continuing to work during his final years. This disease had left Coburn's body deformed and in pain. "You start to turn to stone," he told ABC News in an April 1999 interview. "See, my hand is twisted now because tendons have shortened." For 20 years, he tried a host of both conventional and unconventional treatments, but none of them worked. "There was so much pain that...every time I stood up, I would break into a sweat," he recalled. Then, at the age of 68, Coburn tried methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), a sulfur compound available at most health food stores. The result, he said, was nothing short of miraculous. "You take this stuff and it starts right away," said Coburn. "Everyone I've given it to has had a positive response." Though the MSM did not cure Coburn's arthritis, it did relieve his pain, allowing him to move more freely and resume his career.[28][29]

Coburn was in a four year relationship with British singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul from the late 1970s. They co-wrote her songs "Losin' the Blues For You" and "Melancholy Melon" that appeared on her 1979 Tigers and Fireflies album.[30] Coburn returned to film 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. His performance as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[31] He also provided the voice as Henry J. Waternoose III in the Pixar animated film Monsters, Inc..

Bob Bondurant teaching Coburn in 1972

Coburn's interest in fast cars began with his father's garage business and continued throughout his life, as he exported rare cars to Japan.[10] 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. His Spyder was the thirteenth of just fifty-six built. Coburn imported the pre-owned car in 1964, shortly after completing The Great Escape. [32]

Cal Spyder #2377 was repainted several times during Coburn's ownership; it has been black, silver, and possibly red. He kept the car at his Beverly Hills-area home, where it was often serviced by Max Balchowsky, who also worked on the suspension and frame modifications on the Mustang GTs used in the filming of McQueen's Bullitt. Coburn sold the Spyder in 1987 after twenty-four years of ownership. The car was restored, had several owners, and was sold in 2008 for $10,894,400 to English broadcaster Chris Evans. At that time it set a new world record for the highest price ever paid for an automobile at auction.[33]

Over time he also owned a Ferrari Daytona, at least one Ferrari 308 and a 1967 Ferrari 412P sports racer.[34] From 1998 until his death, Coburn did the voiceovers for Chevrolet's Like a Rock commercials.

Coburn's grave marker

Coburn was married twice. His first marriage was to Beverly Kelly, in 1959; they had two children together.[35] The couple divorced in 1979 after twenty years of marriage.[36]

He later married actress Paula Murad Coburn, on October 22, 1993 in Versailles, France; they remained married until Coburn's death in 2002,[36] both he and his wife Paula set up "The James and Paula Coburn (charitable) Foundation".[37]

Coburn was a martial arts student and a friend of fellow actor Bruce Lee. Upon Lee's early death, Coburn was one of his pallbearers at the funeral on July 25, 1973.[38]

Coburn died of a heart attack at the age of 74 on November 18, 2002 while listening to music at his Beverly Hills home.[36] Less than two years later, Paula died of cancer on July 30, 2004, at age 48.[39]

In The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, critic David Thomson states that "Coburn is a modern rarity: an actor who projects lazy, humorous sexuality. He has made a variety of flawed, pleasurable films, the merits of which invariably depend on his laconic presence. Increasingly, he was the best thing in his movies, smiling privately, seeming to suggest that he was in contact with some profound source of amusement".[40] Film critic Pauline Kael remarked on Coburn's unusual characteristics, stating that "he looked like the child of the liaison between Lt. Pinkerton and Madame Butterfly".[41] George Hickenlooper, who directed Coburn in The Man from Elysian Fields called him "the masculine male".[42] Andy García called him "the personification of class, the hippest of the hip", and Paul Schrader noted "he was of that 50s generation. He had that part hipster, part cool-cat aura about him. He was one of those kind of men who were formed by the Rat Pack kind of style."[43]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Coburn.

• Official website
• James Coburn at IMDb 
• James Coburn at AllMovie
• James Coburn at the TCM Movie Database