Actor Gailard Sartain, who starred in Hee Haw and Ernest movies, died of natural causes on Thursday, June 19, 2025. He was 81 years old.

A funny character actor, Sartain spent two years starring in the country variety show Hee Haw playing characters like store clerk Maynard and Orville the cook. He played the goofy characters Jake and the Chuck in Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Ernest Goes to Jail.

Sartain was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 18, 1943. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Tulsa and started his entertainment career as a cameraman on a local TV station. He created the late night comedy program, The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting, and was discovered by a talent scout, landing him the role in Hee Haw.

He played the Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story, starred in the Hee Haw Honeys series, and he was in The Jerk, The Hollywood Knights, and The Outsiders. Sartain was in Trouble in Mind, The Big Easy, Made in Heaven, Mississippi Burning, and starred in the series Hey, Vern, It’s Ernest.

In the ‘90s, Sartain was in Fried Green Tomatoes, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, Getting Even with Dad, and he played Oliver Hardy in The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in “For Love or Mummy”. His final roles were in The Replacements, Ali, and Elizabethtown.