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James Coburn (August 31, 1928 - November 18, 2002) was an American movie actor.
Born in Laurel, Nebraska, Coburn became famous as the "tough guy" in a variety of films, including: the western The Magnificent Seven (1960), the World War II POW drama The Great Escape (1963, in which he played an Australian airman, but without the requisite accent), the spy movie Our Man Flint (1966) and its sequel In Like Flint (1967), the Sergio Leone 'spaghetti western' Duck You Sucker a.k.a. A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), and Sam Peckinpah's war movie Cross of Iron (1977). He was particularly fine in Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973); and modified his "tough guy" image in satires and comedies, such as What Did You Do in the War Daddy? (1966), Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), Waterhole # 3 (1967) and The President's Analyst (1967).
Due to severe rheumatoid arthritis, he did not appear in any films during the 1980s. He claimed to have healed himself with pills containing sulfur, and returned to screen in the 1990s.
He then appeared in movies such as Young Guns II (1990), The Nutty Professor (1996), The Cherokee Kid (a 1996 TV movie), and Maverick (1994). For his appearance as the abusive father of protagonist Nick Nolte in Affliction he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998.
He died on November 18, 2002, from a heart attack.
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