‘King of the Hill’ Voice Actor Johnny Hardwick Passes Away!!

Johnny Hardwick, the voice of King of the Hill‘s Dale Gribble, has died. The voice actor and comedian was 64. TMZ reports that Hardwick was found dead in his Texas home after law enforcement was asked to perform a wellness check. No foul play is suspected.

Born in Austin, Hardwick was a stand-up comedian, appearing in local Texas venues before making it to the televised stand-up showcase An Evening at the Improv; he gained national attention when he was the first stand-up to appear on the short-lived talk show The Jon Stewart Show. In 1997, Hardwick landed what would become his signature role; chain-smoking, conspiracy-theorizing exterminator Dale Gribble on Fox‘s animated sitcom King of the Hill.

The role of Gribble was originally offered to actor Daniel Stern, but the show could not afford Stern‘s salary; instead, Hardwick successfully auditioned for the role, and played it over the course of 13 seasons and 259 episodes. Gribble was one of the show’s primary characters, a longtime friend of main character Hank Kill (voiced by show creator Mike Judge). A pest exterminator with a penchant for outlandish conspiracy theories, Mountain Dew, and the use of “pocket sand” as an offensive weapon, Gribble was physically modeled on noted gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson; Hardwick‘s motor-mouthed, Texas-accented delivery was key to the character’s appeal. Gribble also served as a producer, story editor, and writer on the series, writing nine episodes over the course of the series while also serving as a staff writer on the show’s first season.

Hardwick did not pursue much acting outside of King of the Hill, but he did maintain a YouTube channel where he performed songs and monologues in Gribble’s distinctive voice; he also reprised the character for the 2022 video game Warped Kart Racers. He had been announced as a cast member of the upcoming King of the Hill reboot on Hulu, which was intended to pick up where the show left off upon its cancelation by Fox in 2009; it is unclear if Hardwick did any recording before his untimely death, as the revival was canceled at Fox before being picked up by Hulu. Unfortunately, Hardwick joins Brittany Murphy (Hank’s niece, Luanne) and Tom Petty (Luanne’s husband, Lucky) as regular cast members of the series who have passed on since its conclusion.