In her review of the 1991 kid ’s comedyErnest Scared Stupid , The Washington Postfilm critic Rita Kempleydescribedthe titular character , the dim - witted but well - meaning Ernest P. Worrell , as “ the world-wide hamlet half-wit . ” As present by Kentucky native Jim Varney , Ernest was in the middle of a 10 - photographic film dealership that would see him erroneously incarcerated ( Ernest go to Jail ) , enlisting in the military ( Ernest in the Army ) , substituting for an wound Santa ( Ernest Saves Christmas ) , and returning to formal education to welcome his high school day diploma ( Ernest Goes to School ) .
Unlike slapstick contemporariesYahoo Seriousand Pauly Shore , Varney take a far more strange route to take stardom . With ad administrator John Cherry III , Varney originated the Ernest character in a series of regional television commercial . By one estimate , Ernest appeared in over 6000 spots , hawk everything from methamphetamine hydrochloride pick to used cars . They grew so democratic that the packman had a 20,000 - extremity lover club before his first movie , 1987’sErnest survive to Camp , was even released .
Varney and Ernest became synonymous , so much so that the worker woulddreadgoing on dates for concern Ernest rooter would near him ; he sometimes fatigue disguises to deter recognition . Though he could recite Shakespeare on a notion , Varney was rarely yield the opportunity to flourish his resume beyond the denim - jacketed character . It was for this reason that Varney , though thankful for Ernest ’s popularity , would sometimes describe his notoriety as a “ mixed blessing , ” one that would come to a poignant conclusion foreshadowed by one of his earliest commercials .
Bornin Lexington , Kentucky in 1949,Varney spent his young being chew up by teacher who thought his interest in theater should n’t replace attention give to math or science . Varney disagree , entrust mellow school just two weeks unsure of graduation ( he return in the evenfall for his sheepskin ) to head for New York with$65 in cashand a plan to perform .
The off - Broadway plays Varney look in were not lucrative , and he began to jounce back and forth between Kentucky and California , driving a truck when meter were lean and appear in TV evidence likePetticoat Junctionwhen his circumstances improve . During one of his sabbaticals from Hollywood , he met Cherry , who cast him as an aggressive military teacher make Sergeant Glory in an ad for a automobile principal in Nashville , Tennessee .
In 1981 , Varney was expect back to film a new daub for Cherry , this one for a crumble amusement parkland in Bowling Green , Kentucky , that Cherry consideredso unimpressivehe did n’t want to show it on television camera . Instead , he create the character reference of Ernest P. Worrell , a fast - talking , often imbecilic local who is constantly harassing his neighbour Vern . ( “ acknowledge what I mean , Vern ? ” became Ernest ’s catch phrase . )
The point was a hit , and before long Varney and Cherry were being ask to film spots for Purity Dairies , pizza pie parlors , appliance store , and other local businesses . In the spots , Ernest would usually see into the television camera — the audience shared Vern ’s point of view — and support whatever byplay had enlist his servicing , usually stopping only when Vern devised a style to get him out of sight .
Although the Purity commercial message initiallydrew complaints — the across-the-board - slant lens create a looming Ernest thatscaredsome kid — his celebrity grew , and Varney became a rarity in the ad business : a mascot without a lasting corporal home . He and Cherry would film up to26 spotsin a 24-hour interval , all targeted for a specific area of the country . In some area , the great unwashed wouldcalltelevision station asking when the next Ernest spot was due to tune . A Fairfax , Virginia Toyota dealership saw a 50 percentage capitulum in sale after Varney begin appearing in ads .
log 1000 of floater in hundreds of market , Varney once say that if they had all been national , he and Cherry would have been loaded beyond belief . But local spotshad local budgets , and the occasions where Ernest was recruited for a major campaign were sometimes veto by exclusivity contracts : He and Cherry had to turn down Chevrolet due to agreements with local , competing automobile dealers .
Still , Varney made enough to purchase a 10 - Accho home in Kentucky , expressing satisfaction with the response of the Ernest character and happily agree to a four - picture deal with Disney ’s Touchstone Pictures for a serial of Ernest features . Released on a near - unremitting basis between 1987 and 1998 , the films were modest hits ( Ernest lead to Campmade $ 28 million ) before Cherry — who organize several of them — and Varney decided to strike out on their own , settling into a direct - to - television distribution model .
“ It ’s like Oz , and the Wizard ai n’t home , " Varney tell theSun Sentinelin 1985 , anticipate his desire for autonomy . “ Hollywood is a place where everything begins but nothing develop . It ’s this big bunch of ego slamming into each other . ”
Varney was sometimes reticent to admit he had ambitions beyond Ernest , believing his love of Shakespeare and desire to perform Hamlet would be perceived as the ready-made story of a goof longing to be serious . He appeared in 1994’sThe Beverly Hillbilliesand as the phonation of Slinky Dog in 1995’sToy Story . But Ernest would uphold to be his stylemark .
The film continued through 1998,at which point Varney observe a nagging cough . It turned out to be lung cancer . As Ernest , Varney had filmed an anti - smoking public service promulgation in the 1980s . In his private life , he was a chain smoker . He yield to cancer in 2000 at the age of 50,haltinga series of planned Ernest projects that includedErnest Goes to SpaceandErnest and the Voodoo Curse .
Varney may never have dumbfound an opportunity to perform in a wide variety of roles , but he did receive some credit for the one he had mastered . In 1989 , Varney took home anEmmyfor Outstanding Performer in a nipper ’s series , a CBS Saturday morning show titledHey , Vern : It ’s Ernest !
“ It ’s a thanksgiving and a scourge , ” he severalize theOrlando Sentinelin 1991 , “ because it ’s as hard to get away from it as it is to get into it . ''
