Actor Bill Byrge in an undated photo.Photo:Bill Byrge/Facebook
Bill Byrge/Facebook
Bill Byrge, an actor best known for his role in theErnestmovies with Jim Varney, has died, PEOPLE can confirm. He was 86.
Chapman tells PEOPLE a memorial service will be held for Byrge in Nashville in the coming days.
“Billy was what some people would call an odd character. He was raised and taught about faith in God. He was taught to be respectful to women,” she says. “If you met him, you liked him. He was just that type of person. He was friends with a lot of celebrities.”
Bill Byrge (center) with Jim Varney (right).Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
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Chapman says Byrge worked at a library in Nashville for his entire career and first connected with a producer for theErnestmovies when they spotted him “walking down the street one day.”
“If you saw Billy in person, I mean, he was a little character. He was a jokester at times. Anyways, Billy just had this way about him and you obviously noticed him automatically, no matter where he was at,” Chapman says. “That’s how he got started in movies. And he was reluctant. He didn’t want to leave his day job. He said the only way is if he could keep his day job, he would do it.”
“The other thing was he didn’t want to talk in the movies. He just didn’t. And the producer says, with his looks and his little quirkiness and everything, he didn’t have to speak,” she adds. “That’s what was funny about it. He had this way of making faces.”
“Heaven gained a sweet soul today,” Chapman added. “Love you, Billy. See you soon!”
Varney died in February 2000 at age 50 of lung cancer. The actor — who portrayed Ernest for the first time in a 1972 commercial and later starred in four Disney-produced movies as the character — had been sick since 1998.
Chapman tells PEOPLE Byrge never married and did not have any children. She says he was “really good friends” withDeadpool & WolverineactressLeslie Uggams, with whom he “corresponded back and forth.”
source: people.com
