About Gailard Sartain
Gailard Lee Sartain Jr. (September 18, 1946 – June 19, 2025) was an American actor who frequently played characters with roots in the South. He was a regular on the country music variety series Hee Haw and was also known for his roles in three of the Ernest movies and the TV series Hey Vern, It's Ernest!, which ran for one season on CBS in 1988. He was also a successful painter and illustrator. == Early life and education == Gailard Lee Sartain, Jr. was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on September 18, 1946, the son of Elizabeth Bell Sartain and Gailard Lee Sartain, Sr. His father served as a Fire Chief in Tulsa from 1956–1964. He attended Cascia Hall Preparatory School but was expelled for poor grades, leading him to attend public Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, where he was in the Art Club and the Senior Play; it was at Will Rogers High School where Sartain, still experiencing culture shock from the far more casual environment of public school, began developing his style of humor. He was a member of the Epsilon Mu chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity at the University of Tulsa, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 1968, Gailard moved to New York City, where he worked as an assistant to illustrator Paul Davis.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.