is jim varney dead?
Jim Varney Dies. Jim Varney, 50, the rubbernecked comic best known for his hokey but adored character Ernest, died of lung cancer Thursday at his home in White House, Tenn., near Nashville. Varney first rose to prominence in the 1980s in a series of regional commercials. He played the excitable, in-your-face character Ernest P. Worrell.