Johnny Hardwick, King of the Hill star and comedian, dies
Johnny Hardwick, the comedian and voice actor best known for his performance as Dale Gribble on King of the Hill, has died.
The Travis County medical examiner's office in Texas confirmed Hardwick's death to EW. Authorities discovered Hardwick's body and pronounced him dead after they were called to conduct a wellness check at his Texas home on Tuesday, law enforcement sources told TMZ. A cause of death was not revealed, but no foul play is suspected, the outlet reported.
Born in Austin, Hardwick got his start in comedy in the 1990s and went on to become the first-ever stand-up comedian to appear on The Jon Stewart Show.
Johnny Hardwick/YouTube; Everett Collection Johnny Hardwick and his 'King of the Hill' character, Dale Gribble
After he performed at a comedy gig in Los Angeles, Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) and Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-Head) approached him, thinking he would be a good fit for a show they were creating at the time called King of the Hill. Hardwick began as a writer on the series, but he later became the voice of Hank's conspiracy theory–touting, bug-exterminating best pal, Dale Gribble, after negotiations with another actor, Daniel Stern, fell through. Hardwick also served as a story editor and producer.
Hardwick starred as the chain-smoking bounty hunter in more than 250 episodes of the animated show, which ran from 1997 until 2010, and he reprised the role in several video-game adaptations of it, including 2000's King of the Hill and 2022's Warped Kart Racers. He earned an Emmy for his work on King of the Hill when the series won the award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1999.
After the show ended in 2010, Hardwick maintained Dale's presence online by posting YouTube covers of famous songs, like the Beatles' "Let It Be" and John Lennon's "Imagine," in the character's iconic, nasally voice. He was also among the series' cast members — including Kathy Najimy, Stephen Root, and Pamela Adlon — who were set to return for a reboot of King of the Hill, which Hulu announced in January.
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