February 10 - Jim Varney

On this day, in 2000, James Albert Varney Jr. passed away in White House, Tennessee from lung cancer. Born in Lexington, Kentucky on June 15, 1949, Jim showed a capacity for memorizing long passages from books at an early age. He was also an excellent mimic, especially with cartoon characters. When he was eight, his mom started him in children's theatre classes. By the time he was in high school, Jim was winning state drama competitions. At fifteen, he played Ebenezer Scrooge in a local production and he was performing professionally in nightclubs just two years later. He went on to study the Bard at a theatre in Virginia and performed regularly at Opryland USA in its early years. A big chunk of the rest of the Seventies was spent at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Kentucky, performing in classics like Blithe Spirit to houses of only a few dozen people. Then came the role of literally a lifetime.

In 1980, Jim was cast in a television commercial as a character known as Ernest P. Worrell. That first ad was for an appearance by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders at an amusement park near Bowling Green, Kentucky, Beech Bend Park. Ernest then literally exploded into the Eighties. For the next decade, Jim performed the lovable character selling everything from natural gas to cars to grocery stores to dairy products. He was franchised out all over the country. Nearly identical ads would run for Tyson's Toyota in Virginia and Audubon Chrysler in Kentucky, just the name of the business would be changed. I remember Ernest in commercials for Country Fresh growing up in West Michigan. And of course, his old buddy Vern, an unseen, unheard character that was essential to the Ernest persona was always right there with him, KnoWhutImean?

Image copyright Touchstone Pictures

The popularity of Ernest lead to ventures outside of 30 second commercials and, for longer than you might expect, Jim was able to sustain the bigger projects. The first leap was into movies. Directed by the same guy who helped develop the commercials (and would direct all subsequent Ernest films), John R. Cherry III, Ernest was first used in a film  called Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. Jim played Dr. Otto, an evil villain with an extra hand on his head, who changes his appearance at the end of the picture to Ernest in order to escape detection. It was the next film Jim did that really catapulted his fame and brought him into the Disney family.

In 1987, Touchstone Pictures co-produced and distributed Ernest Goes to Camp, the first film that focused on Ernest P. Worrell. It was a hit. Made for only $3 million, Camp was in the top five films for the first three weeks it was open and grossed over $23 million. Touchstone would release three more Ernest movies over the next four years. Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) opened at #2 and grossed over $28 million, Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) opened at #3 and grossed over $25 million, and Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) which only grossed $14 million.

Image copyright DCi

Due to the tepid box office of Stupid, Touchstone stopped its distribution deal of the Ernest films, which turned out to be the smart move. The next picture, Ernest Rides Again, only grossed $1.4 million on a $7 million budget, making it the last theatrically released movie featuring the character. Believe it or not, there would be four more direct-to-video Ernest films before the franchise finally petered out in 1998.

The movies weren't the only other incarnations of Ernest though. In 1988, Jim starred in a Saturday morning kid's show, Hey Vern, It's Ernest! A delightfully weird amalgamation of different characters and sketches (my brother and I looked forward to it every week), Jim would be awarded the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series for his work, even though Hey Vern only lasted one season. Interestingly, while Disney wasn't involved with the production of the series, it did own the company that was for a few years in the late Nineties.

Image copyright 20th Century Fox

Ernest's final arena of exposure (but thankfully not Jim's) was actually as part of an attraction. When Cranium Command opened with the Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot in 1989, the pre-show involved General Knowledge showing new recruits different types of brains. A picture of Albert Einstein stood in for someone who used his brain and the type of person who didn't? You guessed it, Jim as Ernest.

Outside of Ernest, Jim enjoyed a broad mixture of successes and failures. He gained critical praise for his portrayal of Jed Clampett in 1993's film version of The Beverly Hillbillies. He starred in The Rousters with Chad Everett on NBC for one season (it just couldn't compete opposite The Love Boat). He was a regular cast member on the infamous television failure Pink Lady and Jeff. He was critically praised again for his work as an abusive father in 100 Proof.

Image copyright Pixar/Disney

Jim came back into the world of Disney in 1995 as the voice of the classic toy Slinky Dog in Pixar's first film, Toy Story. He would reprise the role for 1999's Toy Story 2. For Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Jim brought Cookie Farnsworth to life. He was also featured in an episode of Hercules: The Animated Series as King Ephialtes.

Unfortunately, Jim had been a chain smoker all his life (in spite of the fact that he filmed an anti-smoking PSA as Ernest in the early Eighties). While filming Treehouse Hostage in late 1988, he developed a persistent cough. When that movie wrapped, he went to a doctor and was diagnosed with lung cancer. Jim would continue working, reportedly throwing his cigarettes away, but it was too late. Less than two years later he would pass away (Atlantis was released posthumously). He was only 50 years old.