Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease, James Coburn studied acting at UCLA, and then moved to New York to study under noted acting coach Stella Adler. After being noticed in several stage productions, Coburn appeared in a handful of minor westerns before being cast as the knife-throwing, quick-shooting Britt in the John Sturges mega-hit The Magnificent Seven. Sturges remembered Coburn's talents when he cast his next major film project, The Great Escape, where Coburn played the Australian POW Sedgewick. Regular work now came thick and fast for Coburn, including appearing in Major Dundee, the first of several films he appeared in directed by Hollywood enfant terrible Sam Peckinpah. The next two years were a key period for Coburn, with his performances in the wonderful 007 spy spoof Our Man Flint and the eerie Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. Coburn followed up in 1967 with a Flint sequel, In Like Flint, and the much underrated political satire The President's Analyst. The remainder of the 1960s was rather uneventful for Coburn. However, he became associated with martial arts legend Bruce Lee and the two trained together, traveled extensively and even visited India scouting locations for a proposed film project, but Lee's untimely death (Coburn, along with Steve McQueen, was a pallbearer at Lee's funeral) put an end to that.

The 1970s saw Coburn appearing again in several strong roles, starting off in Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, alongside Charles Bronson in the Depression-era Hard Times and as a disenchanted German soldier on the Russian front in Peckinpah's superb Cross of Iron. Towards the end of the decade, however, Coburn was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which severely hampered his health and work output for many years. After conventional treatments failed, Coburn turned to a holistic therapist, and through a restructured diet program, made a definite improvement. By the 1990s he was once again appearing regularly in both film and TV productions.

No one was probably more surprised than Coburn himself when he was both nominated for, and then won, the Best Supporting Actor Award in 1997 for playing Nick Nolte's abusive and alcoholic father in Affliction. At 70 years of age, Coburn's career received another shot in the arm, and he appeared in another 14 films, including Snow Dogs and The Man from Elysian Fields, before his death from a heart attack in November of 2002. Coburn's passions in life included martial arts, card playing and enjoying fine Cuban cigars!
In 1979, James started suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis which has at times left him debilitated. In 1998, a holistic healer started him on a dietary supplement, which resulted in a drastic improvement in his condition. James has two children - James H. Coburn IV (b. 1961, a sound mixer) and Lisa (b. 1957, a web site designer) Was a pallbearer at the funeral of his friend (and his martial arts instructor) Bruce Lee. Appears on the cover of Paul McCartney's 1973 album "Band on the Run". He co-wrote two songs with Lynsey De Paul, "Melancholy Melon" and "Losin' the Blues for You" that appeared on her album "Tigers and Fireflies". He had a relationship with Lynsey De Paul. Daughter Lisa is currently webmaster for genesimmons.com, the official website of Gene Simmons from the rock group KISS. At the time of his death, he was at home listening to music and playing his flute. Appeared with Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson in two films, both of which were directed by John Sturges: The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. College friend of his The Magnificent Seven co-star Robert Vaughn. Was a big fan of The Seven Samurai. His favorite character in that film eventually became the character he ended up playing in The Magnificent Seven. Despite being one of the stars, he had only eleven lines in The Magnificent Seven. He once played the gong on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. For a time he did ads for "Schlitz" beer. Later after the contract was finished he admitted on a talk show that he never liked the taste of the beer. Was the original choice for the role of Hannibal Smith in The A-Team, a role which later went to George Peppard.