Gailard Sartain, the character actor best known for his role in “The Buddy Holly Story” and his work on variety shows like “Hee Haw,” died Tuesday, June 17, at the age of 78.
Sartain’s death was announced on Facebook by The Church Studio, a Tulsa-based recording studio where the actor and comedian’s wife, Mary Jo, is a frequent volunteer. He is survived by Mary Jo.
A Tulsa native, Sartain was born on Sept. 18, 1946. He began his entertainment career in Tulsa, working first as a cameraman at the local television station where he eventually garnered his first bit of fame for creating and starring in “The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting,” a late-night comedy show he hosted as the fictional wizard Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi. Working with fellow Tulsa natives, including Gary Busey, Sartain wrote and performed special skits in between the show’s broadcasts of old B-movies.
It was his work as Dr. Mazeppa that led to Sartain being discovered and hired in the early ’70s as a regular cast member on the long-running country music variety show “Hee Haw.” A few years — and a small, uncredited role in Robert Altman’s “Nashville” — later, Sartain began to appear as a regular performer on “The Sonny and Cher Show.”
In 1978, Sartain portrayed Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., a.k.a. “The Big Bopper,” in “The Buddy Holly Story.” That film reunited Sartain with his old “Uncanny Film Festival” collaborator Gary Busey, who nabbed an Oscar nomination for his performance as the biopic’s iconic real-life subject.
Sartain went on to become a prolific big-screen character actor, scoring roles in films like “The Outsiders,” “The Big Easy,” “Made in Heaven,” “Mississippi Burning,” “The Grifters,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,” “Ali” and “The Replacements.” He also had roles in three of Jim Varney’s Ernest movies and in the short-lived TV series, “Hey Vern, It’s Ernest!”
Sartain’s last screen role was as Charles Dean in writer-director Cameron Crowe’s 2005 rom-com “Elizabethtown.”
In addition to his on-camera work, Sartain was also a successful artist and illustrator. Throughout his life, he created magazine illustrations and album covers. His artwork was famously used on the cover of fellow Oklahoman Leon Russell’s 1975 album “Will O’ the Wisp.”
