James Coburn

He had a cheeky face, thin and vivacious, and with a wide smile of teeth as vertical as his long figure… That appearance made him attractive for roles of a trickster cynic or tough with a touch of irony. A heart attack while he was listening to music with his wife ended a life devoted to work. At the age of 74, he was still active, demonstrating an unusual trade, hard earned in a career spanning more than half a century in cinema.

James Coburn was born in Nebraska on August 31, 1928 and from a young age it was clear to him that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, the also actor Charles Coburn . He studied acting with Stella Adler and also at the University of Los Angeles. During the early 1950s he had small roles in television series and in 1959 he made his feature film debut in Ride Lonesome , a western directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott . From then on he specialized in cocky cowboy roles. The ’60s began for Coburn magnificently (pun intended) with her role as Britt, the lackadaisical knife thrower in The Magnificent Seven.(1960), by John Sturges .

He almost always played secondary, but he was so emblematic that he appropriated the main glory many times. The same director chose him three years later to escape to Spain in The Great Escape (1963), and in 1965 Sam Peckinpah recruited him for Major Dundee . The following year he landed one of the most famous roles of his career: the quirky, joking Flint cop, secret agent, for whom he received martial arts lessons from Bruce Lee himself . At that time Coburn showed his most quarrelsome and fun character, with his unmistakable turtleneck nikis and his long terylene pants. During the 70s he appeared in notable films such as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) or the anti-war and hardThe Iron Cross (1977), both by Peckinpah, The Fighter (1975) , along with Charles Bronson , or the westerns Get Down, Damn (1971) and Bite the Bullet (1974).

Starting in 1979, Coburn began to suffer from severe rheumatoid arthritis that left him very debilitated. His roles were spread out over time and did not have a great impact. However, he returned to his own strength in Affliction (1999), a tough drama directed by Paul Schrader where he played a nuanced and unpleasant alcoholic father. The Hollywood Academy deservedly awarded him the Oscar for best supporting actor. It could well have been the prize for a whole career of secondary roles that the charismatic Coburn knew how to make fruitful.