Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward, Deliverance actor, dies in car crash at 85

Herbert “Cowboy” Coward, who frightened audiences as the sadistic Toothless Man in John Boorman’s Deliverance, has been killed in a car accident. He was 85.

North Carolina State Highway Patrol officials told EW that Coward was pulling out of a doctor’s office Wednesday in Haywood County, North Carolina, when his Nissan was struck by a pickup truck, killing him and his girlfriend Bertha Brooks. Their pets, a squirrel and chihuahua, also died at the scene.

Troopers said neither Coward nor Brooks were wearing seat belts when the driver, a 16-year-old, struck them. They added that the teen driver was not speeding, and no charges have been filed.

Beyond gaining fame for his role in the acclaimed 1972 movie, local outlets note that Coward was a recognizable figure in Haywood County, fondly nicknamed “The Squirrel Man” because of his penchant for bringing his tame pet squirrel, Cowgirl, everywhere he went.

 Coward was born on Aug. 21, 1938 in Haywood County, where he spent much of his life. He famously landed his iconic role in Deliverance after being recommended by star Burt Reynolds, who met him years prior when the duo worked at the Wild-West themed Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in North Carolina.

“He couldn’t read or write and he stuttered, but he was a wonderful actor,” Reynolds recalled in a 2017 cast reunion video.

"Burt had my number and called me to come over there where they were going to be filming,” Coward told ABC in 2017. “He said when the producer comes in, he'll ask you to act like you're mad and act like you're hurt. Then he'll ask you, 'Is that as mad as you can act?' and you just do whatever flies into your head.”

When the moment came, Coward delivered: “When he [the producer] asked me that, I just slapped him. He said, 'That's mad enough' and I got the job," the actor laughed.

Coward made a big impression in the Oscar-nominated film, where he starred with Bill McKinney as hillbillies who happen upon two vacationers (Jon Voight and Ned Beatty) in the woods. The story becomes a fight for survival as the sadistic locals savagely attack the vacationers separated from their friends, played by Reynolds and Ronny Cox. 

Coward is responsible for some of the film’s oft-quoted lines, including “squeal like a pig,” and “He got a real pretty mouth, ain’t he?” from the controversial sexual assault scene.

“I told Cowboy, ‘you can say whatever you want. If they don’t like it, they’ll cut it out,” Reynolds told Conan in a 2018 interview. “Well, he just started ad-libbing up a storm, and they kept every word because it was gold.”

Three decades after Deliverance, Coward reunited with McKinney for 2007’s Ghost Town: The Movie about the theme park where he got his start. In 2017, he had a cameo in a Jody Medford music video that also featured Deliverance banjo player Billy Redden.

Coward remained in regular contact with Reynolds, having seen him just weeks before his September 2018 death. “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 the following year. 

Coward appeared as himself in an episode of Moonshiners, and played a small role in Hillbilly Blood, but otherwise, he resumed his life in Haywood County away from Hollywood.

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