{"id":36828,"date":"2026-08-10T17:08:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36828"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:08:28","slug":"dukes-of-hazzards-ben-jones-dead-at-84-after-heart-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36828","title":{"rendered":"Dukes of Hazzard\u2019s Ben Jones Dead at 84 After Heart Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The wife of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/celebrity-news\/news\/dukes-of-hazzard-cast-reacts-to-catherine-bachs-hospitalization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Dukes of Hazzard<\/em><\/a> star <strong>Ben Jones<\/strong> has announced her husband\u2019s sudden death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lost the love of my life today. Ben passed from a massive heart attack. He was home resting in his favorite chair waiting for the Braves to come on and whoop the Yankees,\u201d <strong>Alma Viator<\/strong> wrote via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=10164904834969802&amp;set=a.10151583078464802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> on Sunday, August 9. \u201cBen had the most amazing, rich, full life. He loved and was loved by so many. He will be missed. I loved him so, so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones, best known for his portrayal of mechanic Cooter in the original 1980s action-comedy series, was 84 years old. He and Viator were married for nearly 34 years.<\/p>\n<p>After his time on the show wrapped in 1985, Jones moved into a career in politics. He won the race for Georgia\u2019s Fourth Congressional District in 1988 and was re-elected in 1990, per reporting by <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/08\/ben-jones-dead-cooter-dukes-of-hazzard-1237029751\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Deadline<\/em><\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Jones also served as president of SAG\u2019s Georgia branch, per the outlet, and as chairman of the Georgia Film Commission. He was also a writer; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0427549\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IMDB<\/a> attributes 1987\u2019s <em>CBS Summer Playhouse<\/em> and 1998\u2019s <em>Primary Colors<\/em>, starring <strong>John Travolta<\/strong> and <strong>Emma Thompson<\/strong>, to his body of work.<\/p>\n<p>During a 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cg7KMjKKTg4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with <em>Georgia Public Broadcasting<\/em>, Jones reflected on his many achievements with a trademark sense of humor. \u201cSounds like a guy who can\u2019t hold [down] a job to me,\u201d he joked at the time.<\/p>\n<div id=\"news-block\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form  \">\n\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/themes\/us-weekly\/assets\/img\/newsletter-bg-narrow.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"newsletter-form__background background-narrow\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/themes\/us-weekly\/assets\/img\/newsletter-bg-wide.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"newsletter-form__background background-wide\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__success\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<h3>Thank You!<\/h3>\n<p>You have successfully subscribed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Jones also reflected on his time as Cooter, a fictional character widely adored for his crazed energy. \u201cWhen we started filming that show, I was a child actor at the time. Actually, I was a childish actor. We were just making it up,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt was a wild, crazy show and I was cast for it because I was what they were looking for physically and \u2026 I just made it up. I had fun with it, it was hard not to have fun doing what we were doing. I am crazy Cooter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The actor starred opposite <strong>Catherine Bach<\/strong>, who played Daisy Duke, <strong>John Schneider<\/strong>, who played Bo Duke, and <strong>Tom Wopat<\/strong>, who played Luke Duke. Wopat, 74, took to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Db1Ygw7AozZ\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> on Sunday to share a tribute to his friend and former costar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBen Jones was a fine friend and a fierce advocate of all the best things we can offer in the entertainment business. He will be sorely missed \u2026 <strong>Denver Pyle<\/strong> [who played Uncle Jesse Duke on the show] frequently said to Ben, \u2018I\u2019m not your Uncle Jesse!\u2019 But I feel like we lost a Duke cousin today,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The wife of Dukes of Hazzard star Ben Jones has announced her husband\u2019s sudden death. \u201cI lost the love of my life today. Ben passed from a massive heart attack. He was home resting in his favorite chair waiting for the Braves to come on and whoop the Yankees,\u201d Alma Viator wrote via Facebook on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-863406042-Dukes-of-Hazzards-Ben-Jones-Dead-at-84-After-Heart-Attack.jpg?crop=0px%2C61px%2C1580px%2C830px&resize=1200%2C630&quality=86&strip=all","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}