Biography
A hefty, beaming character player and comedian of TV and films with tousled hair and an often hearty manner, Gailard Sartain has played a wide range of roles but has been most typically cast as small-town country bumpkins. He began in entertainment operating a camera for a small Oklahoma TV station while pursuing graduate studies in fine arts at the University of Tulsa. Encouraged by friends, he auditioned to replace a fired radio interview …
Career Milestones
2005 | Cast in Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown" starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst | |
1999 | Played Oliver Hardy in "The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy: For Love or Mummy" | |
1996 | Co-starred with Marcia Gay Harden and Ellen Burstyn in "The Spitfire Grill" | |
1993 | Played role of C.D. Parker during the initial episodes of the CBS detective drama series, "Walker, Texas Ranger", which aired near the end of the 1992-93 season; when series was picked up for the 1993-94 season the role was taken over by Noble Willingham | |
1991 | Cast as the husband of Kathy Bates in "Fried Green Tomatoes" | |
1991 | First TV-movie, "The Chase" (NBC) | |
1987 | Made first appearance in one of the "Ernest" feature films starring Jim Varney, "Ernest Goes to Camp" | |
1987 | Starred opposite Dennis Quaid in "The Big Easy" | |
1983 | Cast in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders" | |
1980 | Made first film for director Alan Rudolph, "Roadie" | |
1978 | Played Willy Billy Honey on the syndicated comedy-variety series, "Hee Haw Honeys", a spinoff from "Hee Haw" | |
1978 | Made feature film debut in "The Buddy Holly Story", in which, in his role as the "Big Bopper", he also performed the song, "Chantilly Lace" | |
1978 | Was a regular on the CBS variety series, "Shields and Yarnell" when it was tried as a regular season series after a popular summer run in 1977 | |
1975 | Appeared on the NBC variety pilot, "The Noonday Show", which aired for five installments as a daily program of news, comedy and music | |
1975 | Was one of the comic featured on the short-lived sketch comedy series, "Keep on Truckin'" | |
1975 | Was a regular on the CBS variety series, "Cher" | |
1972 | Was a regular on the long-running TV syndicated variety show, "Hee Haw" | |
| Was noticed by a talent agent, who arranged for a test for Sartain on the TV series "Hee Haw" | ||
| Was encouraged by friends to apply for a job as a radio interview host when the star was fired; originally offered a three-week trial engagement and later became the regular host of the program | ||
| First worked in the entertainment field operating a camera at a small TV station in Oklahoma while he was pursuing graduate studies at the University of Tulsa | ||