Mr. Movie – James Coburn

We’ll miss that sardonic smile and that “I know something you don’t know” look, both trademark features of James Coburn, who left us at the age of 74. Mr. Coburn contracted rheumatoid arthritis in 1979, which severely limited his ability to move around enough for most film parts. But he kept on keeping on, and in 1997 his tenacity and grit were rewarded when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Affliction.

Neither the film nor Mr. Coburn’s character are easy to like. He is the hateful, bitter father of lawman Nick Nolte. He has ruined his son’s life and poisoned virtually everything he touched. Making this character more interesting than a caricature is no easy matter, but the veteran actor pulls it off with aplomb. Skillfully adapted by Paul Schraeder from a Russell Banks novel, Affliction also includes Sissy Spacek and Willam Dafoe, and is a supremely well-acted, if bleak, movie.

James Coburn was first noticed as the knife-throwing Brit in the still-arresting The Magnificent Seven (1960). Loosely based on the Japanese classic Seven Samurai, this story of killers for sale to the highest bidder also features Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughan, Eli Wallach and Horst Bucholz. This is pretty fast company but Mr. Coburn carves his own niche and is perhaps the most memorable character in the movie.

Mr. Coburn also holds his own in the splendid The Great Escape (1963), one of the best prison camp movies ever made. James Garner, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson are a few of the luminaries trying to get out of a Nazi prison camp that is supposedly escape-proof. This is a wonderful movie with a superb story and great acting all around.

My favorite James Coburn part is the title role in The President’s Analyst (1967). When he wants to quit this very delicate job, half the government goes after him. This is a sharp, biting satire that takes no prisoners and does not suffer fools gladly. Mr. Coburn is ideal for the part, with just enough edgy panache to carry it off.

An underrated and most enjoyable James Coburn outing is Waterhole #3 (1967) in which he, Carroll O’Connor and Claude Akins rob the U.S. Army of a fortune in gold and hide it in a dry waterhole. Mr. Coburn seems to enjoy this amusing romp. (So do we!)

All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.



Rusty Hammond has been writing the Mr. Movie column since 1996. It appears in several newspapers in North Carolina.

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