Rick Hurst, Who Played Cletus On The Dukes Of Hazzard, Dead At 79

Rick Hurst, best known for playing Deputy Cletus Hogg on CBS' The Dukes of Hazzard, died on Thursday. He was 79.

Hurst's death was announced on Facebook by Ben Jones, who played Dukes of Hazzard mechanic Cooter Davenport and now owns the Cooter's Place Museum at Pigeon Forge in Sevierville, Tenn.

"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," Jones wrote. "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."

Hurst's TV career began in the early 1970s with one-offs on shows such as The Partridge Family, Gunsmoke, Kojack, The Little House on the Prairie and The Six Million Dollar Man. In 1975, he landed a role in the ABC sitcom On the Rocks, which was set at "Alamesa minimum security prison" and ran for 24 episodes, leading out of Barney Miller.

Three years later, Hurst was cast on CBS' The Dukes of Hazzard as Hazzard County bigwig Boss Hogg's dim-witted second cousin, twice removed. He appeared in the first five of the action-comedy's seven seasons.

Hurst's later TV credits included Amanda's (ABC's Bea Arthur-led comedy based on the 1970s British sitcom Fawlty Towers), plus episodes of Highway to Heaven, Starman, Murder She Wrote, 227, Melrose Place and many, many other shows.

Hurst reprised his role as Cletus Hogg in 1997's The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! and 2000's The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood, both of which aired on CBS.

Hurst is survived by two sons, Sons of Anarchy vet Ryan Hurst and writer/producer Collin Hurst.