James Harrison Coburn III was an American actor who was featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career.
Coburn was a capable, rough-hewn leading man, whose toothy grin and lanky physique made him a perfect tough guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in westerns and action films, such as The Magnificent Seven, Hell Is for Heroes; The Great Escape; Charade, Our Man Flint, In Like Flint, The President's Analyst, Hard Times, Duck, You Sucker!, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Cross of Iron. In 1997, Coburn won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction. In 2002, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries nomination for producing The Mists of Avalon.
During the New Hollywood era, Coburn cultivated an image synonymous with "cool" and, along with such contemporaries as Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and Clint Eastwood, he became one of the most prominent "tough-guy" actors of his day.