Johnny Hardwick, best known as the voice actor of Dale Gribble on Fox’s King of the Hill, has died at 64. Police were called for a welfare check at his home in Texas, where they discovered his body. No cause of death has been declared.
Dale was a major character featured in the Mike Judge-created animated series on Fox, which ran from 1997 to 2010. The character was one of the high school friends of protagonist Hank Hill (Judge). The two lived in the same neighborhood with other high school friends, Bill (Stephen Root) and Boomhauer (Judge). The character was a heavy-smoking conspiracy theorist who got into all sorts of antics, like chasing a tornado and thinking he had rabies from a raccoon.
Voice Actor Johnny Hardwick, Who Played King of the Hill’s Dale Gribble, Has Died
Johnny Hardwick had not done much as an actor but accomplished plenty during his life. For King of the Hill, besides playing the fan-favorite character, he acted as a producer and writer for part of the show’s long run. When the show won an Emmy, the actor was among the people receiving the award due to his producing duties. He would also receive two other nominations for the same reason.
Born in Austin, Texas, he started his career as a standup comedian. That led him to his first stepping stone to bigger things when he landed a gig on The Jon Stewart Show. Following a show at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, he caught the attention of Judge and co-creator Greg Daniels, leading to his best-known role. At that time, Daniels and Judge were coming off the success of Beavis and Butthead and were in the preparation stages of King of the Hill when they asked the comedian to join them to play a paranoid, hilarious character.
Hulu had ordered a King of the Hill revival, which would have brought back the original cast. It is unclear how it will proceed with the death of Johnny Hardwick.
