John Michael Hardwick (December 31, 1958 – c. August 8, 2023) He also served as a staff writer, story editor, and producer on the show. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards three times, winning once in 1999 with the rest of King of the Hills production team.
Early life
John Michael Hardwick was born in Austin, Texas, on December 31, 1958. He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock. After graduating with a BA degree in journalism, he worked for a decade as a bartender in live blues bars in Dallas and Austin, including Nick's Uptown, Sixth Street Live and The Greenville Bar & Grill.
Career
Starting in 1990, Hardwick performed stand-up comedy for a number of years, appearing at such venues as the Dallas Improv and the Velveeta Room in Austin and appearing on shows including Evening at the Improv and Caroline's Comedy Hour. He was the first comic to appear on The Jon Stewart Show. In 1995, he worked the Montreal Comedy Festival, where Brandon Tartikoff saw his set and signed him to a sitcom on NBC, which never materialized.
After Hardwick signed with the Strauss-McGarr agency, he was continually booked in stand-up across the United States. While at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, he performed a set about his father in Texas. He performed the role for the show's entire original 13-year run and appeared in 257 of 258 episodes.
On September 12, 2012, Hardwick created a YouTube channel, though it had no uploads until 2015. In December 2018, he started regularly uploading new content. As of June 2025, the channel has 24,000 subscribers and over 930,000 total views. The channel’s content primarily consists of song parodies and monologues in the voice of Dale Gribble. In August 2025, two years after Hardwick's death, new episodes of King of the Hill were released where he reprised his role as Dale Gribble. The seventh episode of the revival and Hardwick's final episode featuring him "Any Given Hill-Day" is dedicated to him.
Death
On August 8, 2023, Hardwick was found dead face-up in the bathtub at his home in Austin following a welfare check by local authorities. He was 64 years old at the time of his death. In November, it was reported that the moderate decomposition of his body left the cause and manner of death unable to be established, but the examiner noted that his death appeared to be relatively sudden, that drowning was unlikely, and that there were no obvious signs of trauma.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
| 1996
| Ruta Wakening
| Jester
| Independent film
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1999
|scope="row"| Natural Selection
| Documentary Director (voice)
| rowspan="2"| Short film
|-
|scope="row"| The Collegians Are Go!!
| Sleepy Student
|-
|2019
|scope="row"| Shadows of Sofia
|
| Consulting producer
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
| 1992
|scope="row"| An Evening at the Improv
| Himself
|
|-
| 1997–2010; 2025
|scope="row"| King of the Hill
| Dale Gribble, Additional voices
| Six 2025 episodes recorded prior to death (posthumous release)
|-
| 2003
|scope="row"| The Making of King of the Hill
| Himself
| Television documentary
|}
Video games
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title
!scope="col"| Role
!scope="col"| Notes
|-
| 2000
|scope="row"| King of the Hill
| rowspan=2|Dale Gribble
| PC game