John Schneider turned to social media on Thursday evening (June 26) to mark the death of one of his The Dukes of Hazzard co-stars, calling him a “remarkable force for humanity.”
Rick Hurst — who played Deputy Cletus Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard from 1980 until 1983 — died on Thursday at the age of 79, and Schneider marked the passing of his old friend and colleague with a heartfelt post to Facebook, writing:
I just this moment heard about the passing of dear Rick Hurst, a.k.a. Cletus Hogg. You were remarkable force for humanity, sanity and comedy my friend. Heaven is a safer and more organized place with you in it. We’ll keep the race going and people laughing until we meet again!
Love you.
John
Schneider starred as Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard alongside Tom Wopat, who played his cousin, Luke Duke. The show made icons out of many of its characters, including Catherine Bach’s Daisy Duke.
Hurst also appeared with his co-stars in several Dukes of Hazzard reunions, and his IMDb page lists decades of television and film credits that include Highway to Heaven, Steel Magnolias, In the Line of Fire, Evening Shade, the Jeff Foxworthy Show and many more.
Ben Jones — who played Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard — was among the first to break the news of Hurst’s death, writing, “I have known Rick for over 45 years and there wasn’t a minute of that time that he didn’t leave me smiling or laughing. Sure he was a professional comedian, but mostly he just had a heart as big as Texas. He was a fine actor, a splendid comic, and a wonderfully supportive colleague.”
Jones runs a Dukes of Hazzard museum called Cooter’s Place, where Hurst was slated to appear in July.
“I don’t know about y’all but I believe in an afterlife, and I can see Rick up there in Heaven with Jimmy Best (Roscoe P. Coltrane) and Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg) and Denver Pyle (Uncle Jesse), putting on the funniest show inside those Pearly Gates,” Jones writes.
Hurst’s cause of death has not been disclosed.
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