Rick Hurst, the actor recognized for enjoying Deputy Cletus Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard, has died. He was 79.
In line with the actor’s spouse Candace Kaniecki, he died unexpectedly on Thursday in Los Angeles, TMZ reported. His reason for demise was not instantly disclosed.
Hurst’s co-star Ben Jones, who performed Cooter Davenport on the 1979-’85 CBS sitcom, introduced his demise on Fb after Hurst was scheduled to look at Cooter’s Place in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee subsequent month.
“It doesn’t appear proper that Rick Hurst handed away this afternoon. When one thing so sudden occurs, it’s ‘more durable to course of,’ as the present expression goes,” he mentioned in a assertion. “I’ve recognized Rick for over 45 years and there wasn’t a minute of that point that he didn’t go away me smiling or laughing. Certain he was an expert comic, however principally he simply had a coronary heart as huge as Texas. He was a effective actor, a splendid comedian, and a splendidly supportive colleague. I had seen him in a Burt Reynolds film referred to as W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings and thought that he ‘stole the present,’ so when he confirmed up in Hazzard County throughout the time when Sonny Shroyer was doing the sequence Enos, all the pieces clicked. He match proper in and by no means stopped making folks smile till this afternoon.”
Jones continued, “And because the Dukes continues to be taking part in all around the planet, he’ll proceed to make us snicker! I don’t learn about y’all however I consider in an afterlife, and I can see Rick up there in Heaven with Jimmy Finest and Sorrell Booke and Denver Pyle, placing on the funniest present inside these Pearly Gates. We have now all the time considered our Cooter’s buddies as ‘Hazzard Nation’, Properly, Hazzard Nation is bound going to overlook Rick Hurst down right here round Cooter’s, however his presence will all the time be close to us. Relaxation in Peace, outdated buddy!”
Rick Hurst, John Schneider, Catherine Bach, Ben Jones and Tom Wopat in ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ (1979-’85)
Born Jan. 1, 1946 in Houston, Hurst had a number of TV roles on Sanford and Son, The Partridge Household, Gunsmoke, Completely satisfied Days, Little Home on the Prairie, The Six Million Greenback Man and M*A*S*H all through the ’70s earlier than touchdown the a part of Boss Hogg’s cousin on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Hurst has additionally appeared in exhibits like Homicide She Wrote, 227, The Marvel Years, Household Issues and Melrose Place, in addition to films like Earth Ladies Are Simple (1988), The Karate Child Half III (1989), Metal Magnolias (1989), Wherever However Right here (1999).
