Johnny Hardwick, King of the Hill‘s Dale Gribble, Dead at 64

Voice actor Johnny Hardwick, best known for playing Hank Hill’s BFF Dale on King of the Hill, has died. He was 64.

According to TMZ, which broke the news, police were called to Hardwick’s Texas home on Tuesday for a welfare check and discovered his body. A cause of death is not known, although foul play has reportedly been ruled out.

On King of the Hill, Hardwick voiced Hank bestie/neighbor, the chain-smoking, conspiracy-obsessed bug exterminator Dale Gribble in all 258 episodes of the former Fox series. He was set to reprise his role in the forthcoming Hulu revival. A Hill insider tells TVLine Hardwick had not completed recording the new episodes.

King of the Hill, which aired on Fox for 13 seasons, from 1997 to 2009, centered on propane salesman Hank Hill and his family and friends in Arlen, Texas. The present day-set revival — which does not have a launch date — will once again take place in the fictional Texas suburb.

In addition to Hardwick, original stars announced to return for the continuation include Mike Judge (Hank), Kathy Najimy (Hank’s wife Peggy) and Pamela Adlon (Hank’s son Bobby), along with Stephen Root as Hank’s barber pal Bill. Ashley Gardner is also on board as Dale’s wife Nancy, as is Lauren Tom as neighbor Minh and also Minh’s daughter Connie.

Meanwhile, Toby Huss, who voiced Minh’s husband Kahn on the Fox series, is absent from the revival’s cast list. (TVLine previously reached out to Hulu to see if the role will be recast; click here to read why we definitely feel that they should.) Brittany Murphy, who voiced Hank and Peggy’s naive niece Luanne during the Fox run, passed away in 2009.

“Johnny Hardwick was an incredibly beloved member of the King of the Hill family, whose tremendous talent, brilliant humor and friendship will be deeply missed by all who were fortunate enough to work with him over the past 25 years,” read a joint statement from 20th Television Animation and Hulu. “Our deepest condolences go out to his friends and family as we mourn the loss of one of the animation greats. His voice gave life to one of our most iconic characters, and he will be truly missed.”