Herbert Coward, best known for playing Toothless Man in the 1972 classic Deliverance, has died in a car crash aged 85.
Coward died alongside his partner Bertha Brooks, 78, his beloved pet Chihuahua and squirrel after his silver Nissan was hit by a truck driven by a 16-year-old on Wednesday afternoon.
Neither Coward nor Brooks were wearing seatbelts and the teen driver was not speeding, ABC news reported.
The actor was attempting to turn onto the U.S. Route 23 Highway in Haywood County, North Carolina after a medical appointment but failed to yield the right of way, law enforcement told FOX Carolina.
The 16-year-old survived the crash and was taken to a local hospital following the collision.
Herbert Coward died aged 74 in a car crash along with a friend and his beloved pet Chihuahua and squirrel
Coward was often seen by locals with his pet squirrel on his shoulder
The actor (pictured left) is best known for playing Toothless Man in classic 1972 film Deliverance
State Troopers determined that there was no crime committed and the teenager was not charged.
Coward shot to fame following the release of Deliverance, in which he delivered some of the most iconic lines including ‘He got a real pretty mouth, ain’t he?’
Most of his lines were improvised, Coward later told News 13.
Coward got the role after meeting Burt Reynolds when the two worked together at Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Reynolds insisted on brining him in for the role.
‘He couldn’t read or write and he stuttered, but he was a wonderful actor,’ Reynolds said in a cast reunion video in 2017.
Coward left school barely able to write his own name after his mother died when he was just a boy.
He began working for businessman Hubert Presley, who was developing a Wild West-themed amusement park on Buck Mountain.
He earned his ‘Cowboy’ nickname for operating bulldozers that built Ghost Town, which opened in June 1961.
In perhaps the best known scene from the film, his character and his fellow hillbilly sodomized a man in front of his friend who was tied to a tree in the forest
Coward was cast in the role due to a friendship with leading man Burt Reynolds (pictured left) as he recruited him for the role
‘I was working on pretty heavy equipment for $18 and $20, that’s big money for back then,’ he said.
‘I’d run them and [his boss would] say, ‘Ride ’em, cowboy!”
He gained his toothless smile after being hit in the face with a pistol during a staged gunfight at the park.
He became a recognizable figure following the iconic film, but did not work again for another 35 years.
In later life the actor produced Ghost Town: The Movie in 2007 about the theme park and played Harmon Teaster, a cowboy in one episode of Hillbilly Blood in 2013.
In his later years Coward lived a quiet life in his mountain home, often seen by locals with a pet squirrel on his shoulder.
He remained friend with Reynolds throughout their lives, and saw the star just weeks before his death in 2018.
‘Burt said he didn’t have but three friends — real friends — and I was one of them because I never asked him for nothing,’ he said.