US actor Rick Hurst, best known for his role as Deputy Cletus Hogg on the iconic TV show Dukes of Hazzard, has passed away at the age of 79, his wife has announced
Dukes of Hazzard star Rick Hurst has died at the age of 79.
The star was best known for playing Deputy Cletus Hogg – the cousin of villain Boss Hogg – in the iconic comedy action series. He also appeared in TV shows such as M*A*S*H, Happy Days, Gunsmoke and Murder, She Wrote.
Hurst passed “unexpectedly” on Thursday (June 26), his first wife Candace told TMZ. His cause of death currently remains unknown.
It comes just days before he was due to appear at the Dukes of Hazzard-themed museum and store at Cooter’s Place in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Cooter’s Place has now paid tribute to Hurst after cancelling his July 3 appearance at the Nashville event.
Hurst’s Dukes of Hazzard co-star Ben Jones – who also works at Cooter’s – announced his death on Facebook. He wrote in a statement: “It doesn’t seem right that Rick Hurst passed away this afternoon. When something so unexpected happens, it is ‘harder to process,’ as the current expression goes.
“I have known Rick for over 45 years and there wasn’t a minute of that time that he didn’t leave me smiling or laughing. Sure he was a professional comedian, but mostly he just had a heart as big as Texas. He was a fine actor, a splendid comic, and a wonderfully supportive colleague.
He continued: “I had seen him in a Burt Reynolds movie called W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings and thought that he ‘stole the show,’ so when he showed up in Hazzard County during the time when Sonny Shroyer was doing the series Enos, everything clicked. He fit right in and never stopped making people smile until this afternoon.
“And since the Dukes is still playing all over the planet, he will continue to make us laugh! I don’t know about y’all but I believe in an afterlife, and I can see Rick up there in Heaven with Jimmy Best and Sorrell Booke and Denver Pyle, putting on the funniest show inside those Pearly Gates.
He added: “We have always thought of our Cooter’s friends as ‘Hazzard Nation’, Well, Hazzard Nation is sure going to miss Rick Hurst down here around Cooter’s, but his presence will always be near us. Rest in Peace, old friend!”
Hurst reprised his Dukes of Hazzard role in two TV films, including The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! in 1997 and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood in 2000. His other TV credits include The Wonder Years, Family Matters and Melrose Place.
He also made appearances in films such as The Karate Kid Part III (1989), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989) and Anywhere But Here (1999).
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
