Gailard Sartain, the very funny character actor who spent some 20 years Hee Hawappeared in three films Ernest with Jim Varney and posted a flair for the dramatic The story of Buddy Holly And Mississippi burningis dead. He was 81 years old.
Sartain died on Thursday of natural causes at his home of his native Tulsa, Oklahoma, his 36 -year -old, said Mary Jo Sartain The Hollywood Reporter. “In fact, he died of stupidity,” she said.
Sartain appeared in nine characteristics led by Alan Rudolph: Roadia (1980), Endangered species (1982), Choose me (1984), Songwriter (1984), Disorder in mind (1985), Made in paradise (1987), Moderns (1988), Love in general (1990) and Equinox (1992).
He appeared to Carl Reiner in Lesson (1979) and All of me (1984), for Francis Ford Coppola Foreigners (1983), for Stephen Frears in Grifters (1990), for Jon avnet in Fried green tomatoes (1991) and for Michael Mann Ali (2001).
In 1972, Sartain joined the distribution of the Syndicated Country Variety Show Hee HawAnd he would remain for the next two decades by playing characters such as Orville the cook at the stop of the Lulu truck and the inept clerk Maynard at the General store of Gordie.
Along the way, he portrayed Willie Billy Honey during the 1978-79 spin-off Hee Haw Honeys Alongside Kathie Lee Gifford, Misty Rowe and Lulu Roman.
Sartain was a chef Ernest goes to the camp (1987), with Varney as Bumpkin Ernest P. Worrell, then associated with Bill Byrge to play Airport workers Ernest saves Christmas (1988) and the banking security guards distributed in Ernest goes to prison (1990).
And on Saturday morning CBS Kids Show 1988 Hey, Vern, it’s Ernest!He portrayed Chuck opposite byrge like Bobby in a brother Shtick that two had made for local television advertisements.
In Tulsa, Sartain made his debut in a local television program which also employed Busey, and he won his first important role as a musician-DJ Jerry “The Big Bopper” Richardson The story of Buddy Holly (1978), with Busey as the pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll.
Sartain later was memorable as a racist sheriff threatening in the sheriff of Alan Parker Mississippi burning (1988), who, according to him, has marked an important step for him.
“Nobody likes to be typast like a barefoot hillbilly, so when I had the opportunity to play other roles, I did it with pleasure,” he told Tulsa world Journal in 2017. “I was thrown in there, and this kind of thing made things turn. I was not only typical as a funny guy. It was a bit crucial.”
On Hee HawIn the hourly direction at the top left: Gordie Tapp, George Lindsey, Gailard Sartain and Minnie Pearl.
CBS / Courtsy Everett Collection
The son of a fire chief, Gailand Sartain Jr. was born in Tulsa on September 18, 1943. After being expelled from the private school for misdeeds, he graduated from Will Rogers High School and the University of Tulsa, then moved in 1968 to New York. There, he won a job as an assistant from the illustrator Paul Davis, another Oklahoman whose work appeared The New Yorker,, The New York Times And Playboy.
Back in Tulsa to continue his master’s degree, Sartain was a cameraman at the Kotv local station when he created the late evening show The Film Festival and the Camp Réunion. He also welcomed the program, which presented comedy sketches sprinkled in the middle of old B films, as a wispy wizard Dr Mazeppa Pompazoidi.
After three years on this show and start Hee HawSartain made his debut in a scene in a Lunch counter with Keenan Wynn Nashville (1975) – Rudolph was the deputy director of Robert Altman on this subject – then wrote and made sketches on CBS varieties program organized by Cher and the Mime Shields & Yarnell duo from 1975 to 1978.
In the early 1980s, he and Byrge played the role of Chuck and Bobby in advertisements produced by the advertising agency Nashville Carden and Cherry, who also made spots with Varney like Ernest. The two played twin brothers who were not like anything; The Chuck Chuck was a high mouth, while the Slim Bobby never spoke.
In his Tulsa world Interview, Sartain said he liked to work with Rudolph because he “would simply turn me away. I would therefore offer character accents and things, and he would go for that.”
Sartain has also portrayed an adviser to the Governor of Louisiana Earl Long (Paul Newman) in Ron Shelton Flare (1989), and its impressive curriculum vitae on the big screen included Howard Deutch Be with daddy (1994) and Replacements (2000); Hollywood knights (1980); The Easy Great (1986); Irwin Winkler’s Suspicion (1991); Roger Spottiswoode Stop! Or my mother will shoot (1992); The Patriot (1998); And Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown (2005), after which he retired.
As an illustrator, Sartain created the cover of Leon Russell’s album in 1975 Will be the fulgreur (Russell was also Oklahoma).
In addition to his wife – they got married on the evening of the New Year in 1988 – the survivors include her children, Sarah, Esther and Ben; his granddaughter, Chloé; And his great-grandson, Teddy.
