Actor Rick Hurst, best known for playing Deputy Cletus Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard, died yesterday (June 26) at the age of 79. Hurst guest-starred in the Season 6 M*A*S*H episode “Fade Out, Fade In” as Private Schaeffer, who pretended to be a captain and convinced Klinger he could help get him his Section 8 discharge.
Hurst got his start as an actor in the early 1970s, appearing in episodes of TV shows like The Doris Day Show, Sanford and Son, and The Bob Newhart Show. He starred in one season wonder On the Rocks on ABC during the 1975-1976 TV season. His guest appearance on M*A*S*H came in September 1977 at the start of Season 6, which introduced David Ogden Stiers.
He made his first appearance on The Dukes of Hazzard in April 1979 during the show’s first season. He returned for three episodes the following season before joining the cast full time in November 1980, replacing Sonny Shroyer who left to star in his own sitcom, Enos. Hurst remained with The Dukes of Hazzard through the start of its fifth and final season. He later co-starred in Amanda’s, an attempt to adapt Fawlty Towers for American audiences. The short-lived sitcom starred Bea Arthur. Hurst continued making guest appearances on TV shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Hurst had roles in movies like Earth Girls Are Easy, Karate Kid Part III, Steel Magnolias, and In the Line of Fire. He participated in two reunion specials for The Dukes of Hazzard, the first in 1997 and the second in 2000. According to his Internet Movie Database page, his last acting role was a 2016 TV short; prior to that, he reunited with James Best and Schneider from The Dukes of Hazzard in the 2012 movie Return of the Killer Shrews.
Obituaries can be found at Deadline Hollywood, CNN, and The New York Times.
