‘King of the Hill’ Alum Johnny Hardwick Dead at 64

Voice actor Johnny Hardwick has died. He was 64.

Hardwick — who was greatest often known as the voice of Dale on King of the Hill — was discovered lifeless at his residence in Texas on Tuesday, August 8, per a number of shops.

TMZ reported that regulation enforcement was despatched to Hardwick’s residence to carry out a welfare verify on him and he was pronounced lifeless on the scene. An official reason behind dying has not been launched, however the authorities have dominated out foul play, in keeping with the outlet.

Hardwick was born in Austin in 1959 and studied journalism at Texas Tech College. Following his commencement, he labored as a bartender earlier than pursuing his desires of comedy.

Earlier than getting his breakout position on King of the Hill, carried out stand-up all through the ‘90s. He was additionally the primary slapstick comedian to seem on The Jon Stewart Present.

In 1997, Hardwick joined the solid of the Fox animated collection, voicing conspiracy theorist Dale, in addition to extra voices, for 258 episodes. He additionally served as one of many collection’ producers, writers and story editors.

The comedy earned an Emmy Award for Excellent Animated Program in 1999 and was additionally nominated in the identical class in 2001 and 2002. King of the Hill got here to an finish in 2010.

In 2012, Hardwick launched his personal YouTube channel however didn’t begin creating content material till three years later. He started to submit movies of himself singing parody covers whereas dressed up as Dale and made varied references to his iconic strains — together with “pocket sand” — on the collection.

In January, it was introduced {that a} King of the Hill revival was within the works at Hulu with the entire authentic solid set to return. Along with Hardwick, the present additionally featured the voices of Kathy Najimy, Stephen Root, Pamela Adlon and Lauren Tom.

“We’re all so excited to welcome again Hank, Peggy and Bobby, and to see what they need to say concerning the world we stay in and proceed the conversations we started years in the past,” stated Craig Erwich, who’s president of ABC Leisure, Hulu and Disney Branded Tv Streaming Originals. “This present has the entire excellent components to fulfill this second in animation at Hulu, and we’re so grateful to be having these conversations alongside this gifted group.”

It’s unclear if the solid has already recorded any of the brand new episodes and the way they are going to proceed with out Hardwick.