Jim Varney
| Jim Varney | |
|---|---|
Varney in the film The Expert (1995)
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| Born |
James Albert Varney, Jr. June 15, 1949 Lexington, Kentucky, United States |
| Died | February 10, 2000 (aged 50) White House, Tennessee, United States |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Resting place |
Lexington Cemetery Lexington, Kentucky, United States |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian, writer |
| Years active | 1976–2000 |
| Known for |
Ernest P. Worrell in the Ernest film series Slinky Dog from the Toy Story series |
| Spouse(s) |
Jacqueline Drew (m. 1977; div. 1983) Jane Varney (m. 1988; div. 1991) |
| Parent(s) | James Albert Varney, Sr. Nancy Louise Varney |
James Albert "Jim" Varney, Jr. (June 15, 1949 – February 10, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and writer, best known for his role as Ernest P. Worrell, who was used in numerous television commercial advertising campaigns and movies, earning him fame worldwide and a Daytime Emmy Award. He gained further notability for playing Jed Clampett in the movie version of The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and providing the voice of Slinky Dog in Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999).
James Albert Varney, Jr. was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He was the fourth child and only son of James Albert Varney, Sr. and Nancy Louise Varney (née Howard).
As a child, Varney displayed the ability to memorize long poems and significant portions of material from books, which he used to entertain family and friends. When Varney was a boy, his mother would put the black and white television on cartoons for him to watch. His mother discovered that Varney quickly began to imitate the cartoon characters, so she started him in children's theater when he was 8 years old. Varney began his interest in theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while a student at Lafayette High School (class of 1968) in Lexington. At the age of 15, he portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in a local theater production, and by 17 he was performing professionally in nightclubs and coffee houses. Varney studied Shakespeare at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia and performed in an Opryland folk show in its first year of operation in the 1970s. He listed a former teacher, Thelma Beeler, as being one of the main contributing factors in his becoming an actor. When he was 24, Varney was an actor at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Kentucky. The theater was adjacent to an Old West-themed village and prior to the show the audience would tour the village where apprentices would play townsfolk. Varney and the company usually played in the outdoor theater to audiences of only a few dozen people. Varney would regale the young apprentices by throwing knives into trees. He performed in Blithe Spirit, Boeing 707 and an original musical, Fire on the Mountain. He once jokingly threatened a long-haired apprentice, John Lino Ponzini, that he would take him up to Hazard, Kentucky where he (Ponzini) wouldn't make it down Main Street without the townsfolk giving him a crewcut.
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