Jim Varney Biography
Born: June 15, 1949
Died: February 10, 2000
Gangling, Kentucky-born actor Jim Varney cut his professional teeth at Virginia's Barter Theater, a summer-stock concern specializing in vintage American melodramas. At his funniest when playing it totally straight, Varney was hired as a comedy-ensemble member of the 1976 TV variety series The_Johnny_Cash_Show. He went on to play Evel Knievel-takeoff Virgil Sims in Norman Lear's syndicated talk show spoofs Fernwood 2-Night (1977) and America 2-Night (1978). He was also seen as Seaman Broom on Operation_Petticoat (1977), in another ensemble play on the ill-fated Pink_Lady (1980), as host of the 1982-1983 season of the country-western syndie Pop! Goes the Country, and as Evan Earp, a very distant descendant of Wyatt, on The_Rousters. While this multitude of TV credits was impressive enough, Varney's true claim to fame rested in his dozens of commercial appearances, first as Sgt. Glory in a series of public service spots for the Southern Dairy Commission, then as dimwitted hayseed Ernest P. Worrell ("Hey, Vern!" "KnowhutImean?") in a variety of ads aimed at regional markets. Varney parlayed the Ernest character into a handful of videocassettes (many of these highlighted by profanity-peppered outtakes), a Saturday morning TV kiddie show titled Hey, Vern, It's Ernest (1988-1989), and seemingly endless series of low-budget, lowbrow film comedies bearing such titles as Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), Ernest_Saves_Christmas (1988), and Ernest:_Scared_Stupid (1989). Outside of his by-now standard characterization, Jim Varney was quite effectively cast as mountain patriarch Jed Clampett in the 1993 film version of the old TV sitcom The_Beverly_Hillbillies. His biggest-profile role came with the 1995 blockbuster animated film Toy_Story, which found Varney cast as Slinky Dog. Varney reprised the role for the 1999 sequel Toy_Story_2, and shortly before the release of the second film, Varney revealed he had been battling life-threatening lung cancer since August 1998. Late in 1999, he had experienced a remission from the cancer, but this was to be short-lived. His final battle lasted barely a couple of months after the sequel's release, with Varney succumbing to the disease in February 2000 at the age of 50. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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