With a name like Gailard Sartain, you’re either going to be a southern lawyer/politician or an actor. Good thing for Sartain, he took the latter.
A native of Tulsa, he started out working for the local TV station KOTV and then along with an unknown Gary Busey, they began to develop programs. This was make when many local affiliates used local talent for programs. Sartain and Busey, another Tulsa native, worked with others to produce The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting in the late 1960s.
Then in the 1970s, he was approached to be one of the cast members of Hee Haw which he initially declined before realizing it would make him more money. His appeared in Robert Altman’s Nashville as an extra before being cast alongside Busey as Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., aka The Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story.
His next scene was alongside Steve Martin in a deleted scene in The Jerk that usually appeared in the TV versions. Next, he was the foul-mouth Beverly Hills Police Officer Bimbeau in the teen sex comedy The Hollywood Knights. The movie garnered a cult status from its viewings on TV and cable premium networks. He had a small role in The Outsiders during the church fire sequence.
However, he would get bigger roles in Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas and Ernest Goes to Jail. During this time, he also stretched his dramatic abilities as a racist sheriff alongside Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe in Mississippi Burning. (He would later reunited with Hackman on the football comedy The Replacements). He would also be part of the cast of the Saturday morning kids program Hey Vern, It’s Ernest!
Probably one of his most famous roles was as Ed Couch, the wife of Evelyn (Kathy Bates), the protagonist of Fried Green Tomatoes. As Ed, he played a man who was oblivious to his wife’s needs but still loved her. The role is mainly as a bumbling character something he was known for. But Sartain made him more than just a stereotype.
He had another dramatic role in the movie Guilty by Suspicion sharing the scene with Robert DeNiro and the recently deceased George Wendt as a belligerent Congressman serving on the House on Un-American Activities Committee. Other roles included voicing a character on the first episode of King of the Hill and a judge in the movie Clean Slate.
Sartain retired from acting in 2005. But aside from acting, he was known as an artist designing record covers including that of Leon Russell, another Tulsa native.
Sartain died on June 19 at the age of 81. No cause of death has been released but his family knowing his history of comedy, said “He died of silliness.”
What was your favorite role of his? Please comment.
Zane Says 