Eastbound & Down’s Ben Best Has Died

Photo: HBO Max

Ben Best, who co-created and co-wrote both Eastbound & Down with Danny McBride and The Foot Fist Way with McBride and Jody Hill, has died. He was 46, one day away from his 47th birthday. Confirmation of the writer-performer’s death came from Rough House Pictures, who made a post on their Instagram. “It’s with heavy hearts we say goodbye to our good buddy Ben Best. We lost him the day before he would have turned 47,” the wrote. “A hell of a friend and a creative force. He inspired us and made us laugh.”

Best played Chuck “The Truck” Wallace in The Foot Fist Way. The film was the world’s introduction to McBride, setting the template for future A-holes in Hot Rod, The Fighting Temptations, and Eastbound& Down. “I cannot recommend this movie,” Roger Ebert wrote of the film, “but I can describe it, and then it’s up to you. If it sounds like a movie you would loathe, you are correct.” The film was championed by Gary Sanchez heads Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, who bought distribution rights for the film after it premiered at Sundance. Best went on to write Your Highness and co-create Eastbound with McBride. Best played Clegg on the show, Kenny Powers’s high-school buddy/bartender. The show ran from 2009 to 2013.