Gailard Sartain

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Gailard Sartain - born September 18, 1946 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of a Tulsa Fire Chief. He is a 1963 graduate of Will Rogers High School in Tulsa. And, he was a member of the Epsilon Mu chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at the University of Tulsa from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Sartain is best known as a comedic and serious actor, often playing characters with their roots in the Southern U.S. He is also an accomplished and successful painter and illustrator.

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[edit] Career

Sartain's entry into entertainment was launched in Tulsa. Originally working as a cameraman at a local television station, he gained notoriety through the creation of a late night off-the-wall comedy program entitled "The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting". Dressed as a wizard, wearing a dark blue robe and pointed wizard's cap, Sartain hosted the program as "Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi". Other cast members included fellow Tulsans Gary Busey and Jim Millaway. The program was broadcast on the Tulsa CBS affiliate KOTV and later the ABC affiliate KTUL. It featured B-movies, with skits written and performed by Sartain, Busey and company between the movie segments.

Discovered by a talent scout during his stint as Mazeppa, Sartain was hired in 1972 as a regular on the television program Hee Haw, which had recently been syndicated after being dropped from CBS's schedule. Sartain remained as a regular cast member of the popular show for nearly 20 seasons. He also served as a regular on other series as well (i.e., "Cher" CBS 1975-76; "Shields and Yarnell" CBS 1978).

He has appeared in more than forty motion pictures, most notably as The Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story, Sheriff Ray Stuckey in Mississippi Burning, The Outsiders, The Hollywood Knights, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Big Easy, The Grifters, The Patriot, a memorable but uncredited role in the 1994 comedy Wagons East starring John Candy and Richard Lewis, and most recently Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown. He is also known for his role as Chuck in three of the Ernest P. Worrell movies starring Jim Varney (as well as the Hey Vern It's Ernest tv series. With fellow Hey Vern co-star Bill Byrge the duo performed as brothers Chuck and Bobby in a series of "Me and my brother, Bobby..." pitches for local tv stations and product ads.

A successful illustrator, Sartain's artistic credits range from record cover designs such as Leon Russell's "Will O' the Wisp" to illustrations for nationally published magazines.