James Coburn

American actor (1928–2002)

Fame63.7
Momentum19.5
Actors rank#159

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Fame63.7
Momentum19.5
Actors rank#159
Wikipedia108.4K

Lived 1928–2002, aged 74United States

United States ActorsActor

Wikipedia
65 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1928–2002
Aged 74
Known for
Monsters, Inc.
2001

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

He spent 45 years playing men who moved through danger without flinching — the knife fighter in The Magnificent Seven, the tunnel king's sidekick in The Great Escape, the spy who made cool look effortless in Our Man Flint. Then, at 70, he won an Oscar for playing a father who couldn't stop his hands from shaking.

Biography

About

James Harrison Coburn III was born August 31, 1928, and built a career on physical ease and a voice like gravel over ice. Through the 1960s he anchored Westerns and action films — The Magnificent Seven, Hell Is for Heroes, Charade — and became the New Hollywood's definition of "cool," all coiled menace and dry wit. He led the Flint spy comedies, survived Sam Peckinpah's bloodiest frames in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Cross of Iron, and kept working when arthritis bent his hands into claws. In 1998 he took a supporting role in Affliction, playing an abusive father with such lived-in cruel…

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