'Cowboy' Coward of 'Deliverance' fame killed in crash

CLYDE, N.C. (WLOS) — Herbert “Cowboy” Coward, who played the Toothless Man in "Deliverance," was killed in a crash Wednesday afternoon in Haywood County.

North Carolina State Highway Patrol officials saidCoward's 78-year-old girlfriend Bertha Brooks was also killed in the crash, which happened about 3:30 p.m. on U.S. 19/23 between Clyde and Canton.

The couple's Chihuahua and Coward'spet squirrel were also killed, authorities said.

50TH ANNIVERSARY: INFAMOUS 'DELIVERANCE' ACTOR AND NC NATIVE REFLECTS ON 1972 CLASSIC

Troopers said Coward, 85, left a doctor's office and was hit by a pickup truck driven by a 16-year-old.Neither Coward nor Brooks were wearing seat belts. Troopers said the teen driver was not speeding.

No charges have been filed.

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The chilling 1972 classic “Deliverance"was shot primarily in Rabun County in northeastern Georgia, and some of the actors were locals.

“He got a real purty mouth, ain’t he?” – is one of the movie's most infamous lines, and it came from Coward, who told News 13 most of his lines were improvised.

Coward got his acting start at Ghost Town in the Sky, where he performed daily shoot-outs at the wild-west-themed amusement park.

His big break came thanks to then-budding actor, Burt Reynolds, who also worked at the Maggie Valley mountainside attraction.