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What was James Coburn’s Net Worth?
James Coburn was an American actor who had a net worth of $10 million at the time of his death in 2002. James Coburn appeared in over 70 films and more than 100 television programs during his nearly 50-year career. He was best-known for his roles in Western and action films, including “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Great Escape,” “Our Man Flint,” “Hard Times,” and “Cross of Iron.” Late in his career, Coburn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1998 crime drama “Affliction.”
Early Life and Education
James Coburn III was born on August 31, 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska to James II and Swedish immigrant Mylet. Raised in Compton, California, he attended Compton Junior College in his youth. Coburn went on to be drafted into the US Army in 1950, where he served as a truck driver. For his higher education, he went to Los Angeles City College.
Film Career in the 1960s and 70s
Coburn made his film debut in Budd Boetticher’s 1959 Western “Ride Lonesome.” Later in the year, he was in the Western “Face of a Fugitive.” Coburn subsequently had his breakthrough role as the knife-wielding Britt in John Sturges’s 1960 Western “The Magnificent Seven.” He followed that with roles in two Steve McQueen war films, “Hell is for Heroes” and “The Great Escape.” Coburn next appeared in “Charade” (1963) and “The Americanization of Emily” (1964). In 1965, he was in three films: “Major Dundee,” “A High Wind in Jamaica,” and “The Loved One.” Coburn went on to rise to bonafide stardom in 1966 as the star of the spy parody film “Our Man Flint”; he would also star in the 1967 sequel “In Like Flint.”
In between the two “Flint” films, Coburn starred in “What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?” and “Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round.” After his second “Flint” film, he starred in “Waterhole No. 3,” “The President’s Analyst,” “Duffy,” and “Hard Contract.” Kicking off the 1970s, Coburn starred in “Last of the Mobile Hot Shots.” He followed that with starring roles in “Duck, You Sucker!”; “The Carey Treatment”; “The Honkers”; “A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die”; “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”; “The Last of Sheila”; and “Harry in Your Pocket.” His other notable credits in the 1970s include “The Internecine Project,” “Hard Times,” “The Last Hard Men,” “Cross of Iron,” and “Firepower.”
(Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
Late Film Career
Coburn began the 1980s with starring roles in “The Baltimore Bullet,” “Loving Couples,” and “Mr. Patman.” After those, he mostly only appeared in supporting roles, including in the 1981 titles “High Risk” and “Looker.” Due to his severe rheumatoid arthritis, Coburn appeared in few films during the rest of the decade. He became prolific again in the 1990s, starting with roles in “Young Guns II” and “Hudson Hawk.” Coburn went on to appear in such films as “Deadfall,” “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” “Maverick,” “The Set-Up,” “Eraser,” and the remake of “The Nutty Professor.”
In 1998, Coburn appeared in Paul Schrader’s crime drama “Affliction,” playing the abusive alcoholic father of Nick Nolte’s main character. For his performance, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He closed out the decade with a role in the 1999 action thriller “Payback.” In the early 2000s, Coburn appeared in “Intrepid,” “Texas Rangers,” “Proximity,” and “The Man from Elysian Fields,” and lent his voice to the Pixar animated film “Monsters, Inc.” He had his final two film roles in 2002: a supporting part in the comedy “Snow Dogs” and the lead role in the drama “American Gun.”
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Television Career
Coburn began his television career in the 1950s appearing in various anthology series, including “Studio One,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and “General Electric Theater.” At the end of the decade, he began making prolific guest appearances on Western shows, including “The Rifleman,” “The Californians,” “Johnny Ringo,” “Tombstone Territory,” “Bat Masterson,” “Bronco,” “Laramie,” and “Bonanza.” Coburn continued appearing in guest roles on Western shows in the 1960s, such as “Cheyenne,” “The Tall Man,” and “Rawhide.” He also appeared on a number of other shows in different genres, including the crime series “The Untouchables,” the legal series “Perry Mason,” and the war drama series “Combat!” Coburn scarcely appeared on television in the 1970s, with his two credits being an episode of “The Rockford Files” in 1977 and the miniseries “The Dain Curse” in 1978.
In the early 1980s, Coburn hosted the short-lived thriller anthology series “Darkroom” on ABC. He also appeared in the CBS miniseries “Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls.” Coburn mostly appeared in television films after that, starting with “Digital Dreams” and “Malibu” in 1983. Throughout the rest of the decade, he appeared in such television films as “Draw!,” “Sins of the Father,” and “The Wildest West Show of the Stars.” In the 1990s, Coburn was in the television films “A Thousand Heroes,” “Mastergate,” “The Cherokee Kid,” and “The Second Civil War.” He also appeared in the miniseries “Mr. Murder” and “Noah’s Ark.” At the beginning of the new millennium, Coburn starred in the television film “Missing Pieces.” He made his final appearance on the small screen in an episode of the final season of the HBO series “Arliss” in 2002.
Personal Life and Death
Coburn married his first wife, Beverly Kelly, in 1959. They had two children together before divorcing in 1979. Later, in 1993, Coburn married actress Paula Murad, to whom he remained wed until his passing.
On November 18, 2002, Coburn died from a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 74 years of age.
Real Estate
In 1996 James sold a home in Sherman Oaks, California for $865,000. In 1991 he custom built a home in Beverly Hills. He attempted to sell this home in 2002, months before his death, for $5.9 million. The estate ultimately was not sold and is still owned by his widow.
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