Career
He began his acting career with an uncredited role in the 1950 film, One Way Street.Best portrayed a variety of characters in a wide spectrum of film genres. Some of his more notable roles include Jason Brown in the 1955 historical drama about the abolitionist John Brown entitled Seven Angry Men and as Kit Caswell in the 1958 western Cole Younger, Gunfighter, based on the infamous outlaw. He was further cast as Private Rhidges in the 1958 film adaptation of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead. He played the outlaw Billy John in Ride Lonesome (1959), Dr. Ben Mizer in the 1966 comedy Three on a Couch, the cross-dressing Dewey Barksdale in the 1976 drama Ode to Billy Joe, and the gunfighter Drew in Firecreek (1968), with James Stewart and Henry Fonda.
Best has guest starred more than 280 times on numerous televisions shows. In 1954, he played the outlaw Dave Ridley, opposite Gloria Winters as the female bandit Little Britches in an episode of the syndicated Stories of the Century, starring and narrated by Jim Davis.
In 1960, Best appeared in the episode "Love on Credit" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson. His other appearances include: Wagon Train (three times), The Adventures of Kit Carson (twice as Henry Jordan), the Western anthology series Frontier (twice), Sheriff of Cochise, Pony Express, Behind Closed Doors, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel,Trackdown, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Tombstone Territory, Whispering Smith, The Twilight Zone ("The Grave", "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank," and "Jess-Belle"), Wanted: Dead or Alive, Overland Trail, Bat Masterson, The Rebel (TV series), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Man and the Challenge, Combat, The Mod Squad), I Spy, Perry Mason, The Incredible Hulk, The Fugitive ("Terror At High Point"), Stagecoach West, and In the Heat of the Night.
Fans of The Andy Griffith Show will remember Best for his portrayal of the young guitar player Jim Lindsey in two episodes.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)