James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American actor. He was featured in more than 70 films, largely in action roles, and made 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, ultimately winning an Academy Award in 1997 for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.

A capable, rough-hewn leading man, his toothy grin and lanky body 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, Duck, You Sucker!, and Cross of Iron.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s Coburn cultivated an image synonymous with "cool", and along with such contemporaries as Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson became one of the prominent "tough-guy" actors of his day.

Early life

Coburn was born on August 31, 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska, the son of James Coburn, Jr. and Milet Johanson; his father was of Scots-Irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from Sweden. The elder Coburn had a garage business that was destroyed by the Great Depression. Coburn himself was raised in Compton, California, where he attended Compton Junior College. In 1950, he enlisted in the United States Army, in which he served as a truck driver and an occasional disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas. Coburn also narrated Army training films in Mainz, Germany. Coburn attended Los Angeles City College, where he studied acting alongside Jeff Corey and Stella Adler, and later made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Coburn was selected for a Remington Products razor commercial in which he was able to shave off 11 days of beard growth in less than 60 seconds, while joking that he had more teeth to show on camera than the other 12 candidates for the part.

James Coburn (Irish politician)

James Coburn (13 April 1889 – 5 December 1953), also known as "The Juker" Coburn, was an Irish politician. A builders foreman, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann as an National League Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency at the June 1927 general election. He was re-elected at the September 1927 general election but became an independent TD in July 1931 following the disbandment of the National League Party. He was re-elected as an independent TD at the 1932 and 1933 general elections. At the 1937 general election he was re-elected as a Fine Gael TD for Louth. He was re-elected at each general election until the 1951 general election. His background as a builder led to Fianna Fáil supporters disrupting Coburn's rallies at election time by singing "A mason once again" to the tune of the Fine Gael anthem A Nation Once Again. He died during the 14th Dáil and the subsequent by-election on 3 March 1954 was won by his son George Coburn.

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Capital punishment in the United States

In the United States, capital punishment—also called the death penalty—is a legal sentence in 31 states and the federal civilian and military legal systems. Its applications are limited by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to aggravated murders committed by mentally competent adults.

Capital punishment was a penalty for many felonies under English common law, and it was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence. The methods of execution and the crimes subject to the death penalty vary by state and have changed over time. The most common method since 1976 has been lethal injection. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, thirty-four states have performed executions.

In 2015, 28 inmates were executed by 6 U.S. States (Florida: 2, Georgia: 5, Missouri: 6, Oklahoma: 1, Texas: 13 [including one volunteer], Virginia: 1), and 2,984 were on death row.

States such as Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, and Arizona execute convicted murderers with relative frequency. Texas has performed the most executions by far, and Oklahoma has had (through mid-2011) the highest per capita execution rate. Alabama has the highest per capita rate of prisoners on death row in the US. However, a number of states have abolished the death penalty. No other Western country still uses the death penalty except for the United States.

James Coburn (disambiguation)

James Coburn may refer to:

See also