Herbert Coward, known as ‘Toothless Man’ in ‘Deliverance,’ killed in car crash

Herbert "Cowboy" Coward died in a car crash Wednesday, according to authorities. He was 85.

The crash occurred as Coward and a friend, Bertha Brooks, left a doctor's appointment, North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. M.J. Owens said. The actor pulled out onto U.S. Route 19 in front of a truck, which hit his vehicle.

Both Coward and Brooks died along with a pet squirrel and a chihuahua, authorities claimed. Coward, who lived in Haywood County, was famous locally for having a pet squirrel, he said.

‘STAR TREK’ ACTOR GARY GRAHAM DEAD AT 73

Owens indicated speed and distractions were not factors in the crash. The 16-year-old driver of the other vehicle was taken to a hospital.

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.

Coward’s character, known as the "Toothless Man" for his missing front teeth, is one of the men who hold several of the paddlers at gunpoint while one is sodomized. Coward became the indelible face to one of the most infamous scenes in 1970s cinema, contributing the line, "He got a real purty mouth, ain’t he?"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.