Caryville native and movie star Bill Byrge is remembered

The interview features Bill Byrge and WLAF’s Bill Waddell during the summer of 1993.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- There was a time or two over the years when Caryville native, William Bill Byrge, known as Billy to us here at WLAF, would pay a visit to the radio station. “You know, Billy never drove, and when he would come back for a visit, he would sometimes get someone to bring him by to see us. Billy walked or took a cab or a bus to get around Nashville,” said Bill Waddell of WLAF, a long time friend of Byrge.

“It was a cold January day in 1984 when I shot my very first television commercial,” said Byrge.

His career really took off after talking with a fellow church member who worked at Carden and Cherry advertising agency. This is the agency that created Jim Varney’s character Ernest P. Worrell. She invited Byrge by her office, and from there came more commercials and then playing a key role in the Ernest movies.

In the Ernest movies as well as in television commercials, Bill (right) played the twin brother Bobby of Gailard Sartain, Chuck. Though the two did not look anything alike. (PHOTO COURTESY OF TOUCHTONE PICTURES)

Byrge was a 1958 graduate of Jacksboro High School and later graduated from the University of Tennessee. He went on to become a librarian at the Metro Nashville Public Library.

Commercials to television shows to music videos to movies, Byrge had quite the career all the while holding down his fulltime position with the library.

Byrge, 86, passed away at his Nashville home on January 9. He’ll be laid to rest Saturday at Beech Fork Cemetery. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-01/17/2025-6AM-VERY TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL BYRGE FACEBOOK PAGE)

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