Johnny Hardwicke, the voice actor, comedian and producer best known for playing Dale Gribble in Fox’s animated feature comedy “King of the Hill,” has died.
Hardwicke also had roles as a writer and story editor while on the show, which consisted of over 200 episodes. As a producer on King of the Hill, Hardwick won an Emmy Award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program. He received two more nominations in the category.
Dale Gribble was a major supporting character on “King of the Hill,” which was created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels and ran for 13 seasons and 259 episodes between 1997 and 2010. Dale was one of Hank Hill’s best friends, known for his constant paranoia over conspiracy theories. Hardwicke voiced the role of Dale throughout the show’s 13-season run and appeared in 257 of the series’ 258 episodes.
Born in Austin, Texas, Hardwick began his career as a local stand-up comedian, eventually performing on “The Jon Stewart Show.” A routine at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Los Angeles put him on Daniels and Judge’s radar, with the latter finding television success as the creator of MTV’s “Beavis and Butt-Head.” The duo were putting “King of the Hill” together and gave Hardwicke the chance to join them.
Outside of “King of the Hill,” Hardwicke has appeared in reality shows like “Ace of Cakes” (2009) and “Boomer vs Zoomer” (2019). He continued to voice Dale in other mediums, such as the video game “King of the Hill” and the 2022 racing game “Warped Kart Racers” through archived recordings.
“King of the Hill” was ordered to be officially revived on Hulu in January. Hardwicke was attached to reprise the role of Dale alongside returning voice cast members such as Kathy Najimy, Stephen Root, Pamela Adlon, and Lauren Tom.
“Lifelong beer expert. General travel enthusiast. Social media buff. Zombie maven. Communicator.”