James Harrison Coburn III (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American actor who was featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career.

Coburn was in numerous leading roles in Westerns and action films. He played supporting roles in The Magnificent Seven, Hell Is for Heroes, The Great Escape, Charade and Hard Times as well as the lead role in Our Man Flint and its sequel In Like Flint, The President's Analyst, Duck, You Sucker!, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Cross of Iron. In 1998, Coburn won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction. In 2002, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries nomination for producing The Mists of Avalon.

During the New Hollywood era, he cultivated an image synonymous with "cool".

James Harrison Coburn III was born in Laurel, Nebraska, on August 31, 1928, the son of James Harrison Coburn II and Mylet S. Coburn (née Johnson). His father and namesake was of Scots-Irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from Sweden. His father had a garage business in Laurel that was destroyed by the Great Depression. Coburn was raised in Compton, California, where he attended Compton Junior College.

In 1950, Coburn was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as a truck driver and occasionally a disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas. He also narrated Army training films in Mainz, West Germany.

He attended Los Angeles City College, where he studied acting with fellow actor Jeff Corey under Stella Adler's tutelage, and later made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Herman Melville's Billy Budd.

Coburn's first television appearance was in 1953 on Four Star Playhouse.

He was selected for a Remington Products razor commercial, where 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.