"Actors are boring when they're not working. It's a natural condition, because they don't have anything to do. They just lay around, and that's why so many of them get drunk. They really get to be boring people. My wife will attest to that."
Dear friends of James Coburn,
With deepest sadness we announce that Mr Coburn passed away yesterday. Mr Coburn and his wife, Paula, were listening to Ray Conniff music at their Beverly Hills home when he suffered a heart attack. Mr Coburn was not able to be rescucitated on arrival at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and he died in the arms of his wife Paula.
Mr Coburn was at the height of happiness, having overcome the pain of crippling arthritis and earning his Academy Award (TM). The Coburns put their house on the market to downsize in preparation for a life of travel. Mr Coburn is survived by his beautiful second wife Paula, his brave son, James H. Coburn IV, and cherished daughter, Lisa. Our thoughts go out to them in this time.
This website and the Fan Club will be maintained as a memorial to Mr Coburn for all time, subject only to financial considerations and technological change.
11.19.2002
Memories of James Coburn
James was famous for his extensive collection of gongs, his close friendship with Bruce Lee, overcoming the crippling effects of arthritis with the use of sulphur pills (manufactured from natural sources in Sulphur Springs, TX). In Japan, Mr Coburn was well-known in business circles for his sideline of importing used cars from the U.S.A..
James Coburn was born in Laurel, Nebraska in 1928, along with twin Robert (later a philosophy teacher at Ohio State University). James was lean,
sandyhaired and 6ft. 3ins. in his socks. He almost became typecast as a gunslinger
in TV and movies although, to be precise, a knife was his weapon in The
Magnificent Seven. Later he donned a wellcut suit and an air of sophistication
to play the romantically-inclined counterspy Derek Flint. His screen debut was
in Ride Lonesome (1958), followed by Face of a Fugitive and then, The Magnificent Seven, the film that made him famous.
For James Coburn, mortality has taken the prison'd soul and laps it in Elysium, you can pay your respects through a movie ticket to "The Man From Elysian Fields". Early next year, we will see Mr Coburn in first-release for the last time in "American Gun," in which Mr Coburn's character travels the country in search of his daughter's killer.
Journalists and fans frequently asked Mr Coburn to name his favorite film. I never asked him directly -- it's a question, in my experience, which actors loathe. However, when discussing business affairs he once confided to me, "You know Hilly, I think my favorite is still Duffy, Flint was a cat but Duffy was real. He had something to say."
71st Annual Academy Awards Ceremony (1999). What Mr Coburn said:"My, my, my. Wow. You know, I've been around here -- I've been working and doing this work for like, over half my life. And I finally got one right I guess. See, some of them you do for money, some of them you do for love. This is a love child. Paul Schrader put together -- Paul and Nick actually put together AFFLICTION. I mean, it was a beautiful script. We had an extraordinary cast -- Nick, Sissy Spacek, Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt -- in a screenplay second to none. I'd like to thank all of those people. Plus, Linda Reisman produced it for us. Largo paid for it. Lions Gate released it. I'd like to thank Hilly Elkins, my manager, and Bobby Littman my agent. My publicists, Delson and Weissman. I'd like to say thanks to all the people up in Santa Barbara where I'm working on a thing called ATTICUS. Thank you gang for giving me Monday off. My kids, I say thanks to my kids... [music playon] Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I've got to say something else here! This, for my beautiful wife, Paula. She finally got to come to the Academy Awards. This is for you, baby!"
updated Jan 28 2008. Hillard Elkins
13443 Mulholland Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (818) 501-9900
FAX: (818) 501-9800
