JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The voice actor Johnny Hardwick has died. He's best known for his role as Dale Gribble on the animated series "King Of The Hill."
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MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The Emmy-winning show was a slice-of-life satire about a Texas family. And Dale Gribble, a chain-smoking conspiracy theorist, was best friends with the show's protagonist, Hank Hill.
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JOHNNY HARDWICK: (As Dale Gribble) I know what's wrong with it. It's a Ford. You know what they say Ford stands for; don't you? Stands for fix it again, Tony (laughter).
MIKE JUDGE: (As Hank Hill) You're thinking of a Fiat, Dale.
SUMMERS: Dale wore mirrored aviator glasses and an orange trucker hat. And because of his government paranoia, he sometimes assumed an alias.
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HARDWICK: (As Dale Gribble) Is that a real computer?
DAVID HERMAN: (As Jonathan Burrows) Yes.
HARDWICK: (As Dale Gribble) Oh. In that case, my name is Rusty Shackleford.
KELLY: (Laughter) "King Of The Hill" ran for 13 seasons from 1997 to 2010. Hardwick could be heard in nearly every episode, and he was slated to join a reboot of the show greenlit by Hulu earlier this year.
SUMMERS: In a 2003 documentary called "The Making Of King Of The Hill," the show's co-creator Mike Judge reflected on bringing Hardwick on board.
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JUDGE: To make animation really work, it's just important to make the look of the character and the voice match. And the first time I thought it really came together on "King Of The Hill" was actually Dale - Johnny Hardwick doing Dale.
SUMMERS: Here's Hardwick in the same film.
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HARDWICK: They had seen some tapes of me. I used to do stand-up, and Mike said he might be interested in me doing a voice 'cause then I kind of locked into this Dale guy. That was sort of the only thing I wanted to audition for after - 'cause in the pilot script, he's just talking about the government.
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HARDWICK: (As Dale Gribble) Hey. Did you guys know that there's a star for each state? Brilliant. (Singing) You're a grand old flag. You're a something something flag. And forever in peace may you wave.
KELLY: That is the voice of Johnny Hardwick, who died this week at 64.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE REFRESHMENTS SONG, "YAHOOS AND TRIANGLES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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