Rick Hurst, who portrayed the good-hearted Deputy Cletus Hogg on the long-running CBS action comedy The Dukes of Hazzard, died Thursday. He was 79.
Hurst’s death was announced by the Cooter’s Place museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. He had just canceled a scheduled July 3-7 appearance there.
“To fans, he was more than a character — he was family,” reads a Dukes of Hazzard post on Instagram. “His gentle smile, impeccable comedic timing and kind-hearted spirit made every scene brighter.
“Offscreen, Rick was known for his generosity, humility and love for connecting with fans at events across the country. Whether it was a reunion special or a meet-and-greet at Cooter’s, he never stopped sharing his joy with the people who adored him.”
Before his most famous role, Hurst played as a prisoner named Cleaver alongside Tom Poston and Hal Williams on the 1975-76 ABC sitcom On the Rocks, which was centered on inmates at a minimum security facility.
Hurst also guest-starred on lots of TV programs, from The Bob Newhart Show, Gunsmoke, Kojak, Happy Days and Little House on the Prairie to M*A*S*H, Baretta, Highway to Heaven, Evening Shade and The Wonder Years.
Survivors include his son Ryan Hurst, an actor perhaps best known for his turn as Opie Winston on the FX drama Sons of Anarchy.
Hurst first showed up as Cletus — the second cousin twice removed of corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) — in 1979 on the 11th episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, starring Tom Wopat, John Schneider, Catherine Bach and a 1969 Dodge Charger nicknamed the General Lee. The series was a big hit for CBS on Friday nights.
Cletus becomes temporary deputy when Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer) is away during the second season, and he leaves his junkyard job to become permanent during season three, when Shroyer starred in his own spinoff series, Enos.
After Enos returns to Hazzard County, Georgia, from his job in Los Angeles — the spinoff lasted just one season — he and Cletus share deputy duty and a patrol car through season five (1982-83).
Hurst, who frequently ended up landing in a pond while pursuing those Duke boys (Wopat and Schneider) in one of those great car chases, then returned for reunion telefilms in 1997 and 2000.
Born in Houston on New Year’s Day in 1946, Richard Douglas Hurst earned his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University in 1968 and his master’s in fine arts from Temple University in 1970.
He made his onscreen debut on a 1971 episode of The Doris Day Show, then appeared the next year on Sanford and Son and The Partridge Family and in the movie The Unholy Rollers.
After Dukes, he played a bumbling chef on Amanda’s, a 1983 ABC remake of the British hit sitcom Fawlty Towers that starred Bea Arthur as the owner of a seaside hotel (it was her first series after Maude). However, the show aired just 10 episodes before being canceled.
His big-screen body of work also included Tunnel Vision (1976), The Cat From Outer Space (1978), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Client (1995) and Steel Magnolias (1989).
