Johnny Hardwick, the voice actor best known for his role as Dale Gribble on the animated comedy series King of the Hill, has died.
As reported by TMZ, Hardwick died on Tuesday. He was 64 years old. A Texas native, Hardwick is best known for his work on Mike Judge’s animated series King of the Hill, where he voiced Dale Gribble. Though Hardwick also served as a writer and a story editor during the show’s 13-season run on Fox, appearing in 257 of the show’s 258 episodes.
Dale Gribble was one of the neighbors of the Hill family and was a chain-smoking conspiracy theorist who worked as an insect exterminator but also worked other jobs, such as a bounty hunter.
In addition to King of the Hill, Hardwick also appeared on the reality TV series Ace of Cakes and Boomer vs Zoomer. More interestingly, Hardwick had his own YouTube channel, his most notable uploads where he uploaded different types of content, but a good portion of it was song parodies he performed in his Dale Gribble voice. His last video was uploaded over a year ago.
King of the Hill ran from 1997 until 2010. While the series has been dormant since last year, it was announced that the cartoon was being revived, though instead of heading to Fox, the show will air on the streaming service Hulu. Hardwick was set to reprise his role as Dale when the series returned, though it’s currently unknown if Hardwick recorded any lines for the revival show or if there are plans to recast.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.