Jim Varney Net Worth

Jim Varney's Quotes

• Life's just a bus stop to somewhere infinitely better.
• [On making Ernest Scared Stupid] I loved it. As a kid, anything that gave me nightmares I had to watch.
• I started to do a study on how not to do stand-up comedy. Yeah, it's lonely work. You die, you die alone. It's you, the light, and the audience. If you win, you win big. If you lose, you lose big time.
• I like to sing. I write music. Country songs. You have to if you're in Nashville. It's part of the lease. You sign a lease that says, I will write country songs and pay my rent on time.
• I'd like to do a piece of Shakespeare. Any upcoming Shakespeare film. Just a bit to say I did a classic.

Interesting Facts about Jim Varney

1. Included in a 1986 home video collection of Ernest commercials is a public service spot with Ernest trying to convince "Vern" to quit smoking, thus avoiding "The Big 'C'-Cancer. Chemotherapy City."
2. Was a heavy smoker off-camera and died of lung cancer at age 50.
3. Jim Varney died at about 4:45 am February 10, 2000 at his White House, Tennessee home. His sisters and his niece and nephew Justin Lloyd were at his bed side when he died.
4. Lived in Lexington, Kentucky while growing up, and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1968. He listed a former teacher, Thelma Beeler, as being one of the main contributing factors in his becoming an actor.
5. His final movie, "Ernest the Pirate" (2000) had nearly completed shooting at the time of his death, but got canceled and was never released.
6. Known to fans as Ernest P. Worrell, his most famous character, who propelled him to the public eye. Ernest appeared in commercials "alongside" his off-camera friend Vern. Ernest would address the camera as if it were Vern.
7. Despite his persona as Ernest P. Worrell, he reportedly had a near genius I.Q. level. He was said to be occasionally exasperated with fans who met him and assumed he was exactly like the Worrell character he portrayed.
8. When he discovered he had lung cancer in August 1998, he reportedly threw away his cigarettes and quit smoking--cold turkey. Unfortunately, it was too late.
9. He used to do commercials for the Dodge dealership in Henderson, Kentucky, sitting in the Dodge Viper "high in the sky."
10. As his Ernest P. Worrell persona, he did advertisements for the Southern California auto mall Cerritos Auto Square. After his death, commercials now feature a CGI Ernest.
11. As Ernest, Jim Varney used to do Purity Dairy commercials which ran in Nashville, TN.
12. One of the companies he portrayed his beloved character Earnest for was the Kroger grocery store chain. These aired mainly in Tennessee, parts of Mississippi, and Ohio, where Kroger chains are predominate.
13. Between 1987 and 1990, Disney released four Ernest movies that generated a total of $100 million. Five more Ernest films were released independently, mainly for the video and television markets.
14. The character of Ernest was actually introduced in a commercial for Bowling Green, Kentucky's Beech Bend Raceway Park.
15. Along with Robin Williams, Varney was one of Los Angeles's Comedy Store's original alumni.
16. Standup comedy launched his TV career. His first national appearance came at age 25, when he embarked on the talk show circuit, that included The Merv Griffin Show (1962) and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).
17. Studied Shakespeare at the Barter Theatre in Virginia and performed in a folk show during Opryland's first year of operation
18. When given the chance to have a lifelong dream fulfilled by such groups as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, several hundred terminally ill children have asked to meet Ernest. He never let them down.
19. Was very good friends with Robin Williams.
20. Remained good friends with his second wife Jane after their divorce and she became his spokesperson later in life.