R.I.P. Gailard Sartain, Hee Haw and The Buddy Holly Story actor

Sartain appeared in three Ernest films opposite Jim Varney, as well as The Outsiders, Mississippi Is Burning, and more.

By Emma Keates  |  June 20, 2025 | 3:43pm
Screenshot: Oklahoma Historical Society/YouTube
Film News Gailard Sartain
R.I.P. Gailard Sartain, Hee Haw and The Buddy Holly Story actor

Gailard Sartain, the comic and character actor known for his nearly 20-season-long role on country variety show Hee Haw as well as roles in the Ernest films, The Buddy Holly Story, and more, has died. His wife of 36 years, Mary Jo Sartain, shared that he died of natural causes with The Hollywood Reporter. “Actually, he died of silliness,” she added. He was 81.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1943, Sartain’s career in entertainment began when he landed a job as a cameraman for a local television station. His big break came in 1972 when he was cast as a regular on Hee Haw, a syndicated country music variety show. He would spend nearly 20 seasons with the program, playing a variety of characters like Orville the cook, and Maynard the inept general store clerk, per THR. 

He also forged an impressive and prolific career playing funny characters in feature films, including nine directed by Alan Rudolph (Roadie, Endangered Species, Choose Me, Songwriter, Trouble in Mind, Made in Heaven, The Moderns, Love at Large, and Equinox) and three Ernest films (Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Ernest Goes to Jail) opposite Jim Varney.

“Here’s the key to a lot of this is I came away with such wonderful memories of working with really special people,” Sartain reflected in an interview with Tulsa World in 2017. “That was part of the fascination for me was not only the material and the work, but who is going to be there, because I was always a fan first.”

Sartain’s first significant film role came in 1978, when he was cast as DJ Jerry “The Big Bopper” Richardson in Steven Rash’s The Buddy Holly Story, which starred Gary Busey as the rock n’ roll pioneer. Other significant credits came in Carl Reiner’s The Jerk and All Of Me, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders, Stephen Frears’ The Grifters, Jon Avnet’s Fried Green Tomatoes, and Michael Mann’s Ali.

He also occasionally shifted into the dramatic, as with his role as a racist sheriff in 1988’s Mississippi Is Burning, “Nobody likes to be typecast as a barefooted hillbilly, so when I had the opportunity to do other roles, I happily did it,” he told Tulsa World. “I was cast in that, and that kind of turned things around. I wasn’t just typecast as a funny guy. That was a little bit pivotal.”

His last role came in 2005 in Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown. “I retired after that picture because I knew it was not going to ever get any better than that,” he said. “I just had a wonderful experience and… I just wanted the last one to be a good memory.” 

 
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