Joe Higgins(1925-1998)
- Actor
American character actor Joe Higgins was most prominent playing the
character of a sheriff in commercials and public service announcements.
An actor from the age of nine, he attended the University of Dayton
(Ohio) and worked in radio while a student. He entered television and
played recurring roles on such television series as
L'homme à la carabine (1958) and
Arrest and Trial (1963). His
1969 automobile commercial as a gravel-voiced sheriff became enormously
popular, and Higgins played the character in scores of commercials,
print ads and public appearances, twice winning the CLIO award for
commercial actors. In addition to his acting, he earned a Ph.D. in
Aviation Education from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He died
in 1998. Services were held at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills and
his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off the channel Islands
north of Los Angeles by his two children; Brian and Valerie.
