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WASHINGTON — Herbert Coward, known for his “Toothless Man” role in the movie “Deliverance,” died Wednesday in a crash on a western North Carolina highway, according to authorities. He was 85.
The crash happened Wednesday afternoon as Coward and Bertha Brooks, 78, left a doctor’s appointment, North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. M.J. Owens said by telephone on Thursday. Coward pulled out onto U.S. Route 19 in front of a pickup truck, which hit his car, Owens said. Coward and Brooks as well as a Chihuahua and pet squirrel were killed, he said. Coward, who lived in Haywood County, was famous locally for having a pet squirrel, he said.
The 16-year-old driver of the truck was taken to a hospital as a precaution. Authorities don’t believe speed or distraction were factors in the crash, Owens said.
Coward had a small but memorable role in John Boorman’s 1972 classic “Deliverance.” The film starred Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox as a group of businessmen canoeing down a river in remote Georgia. Their adventure turns into a backwoods nightmare when local mountain men assault them.
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