Ron White

Ron White, the cigar-smoking, scotch-drinking stand-up comic best known for his association with the commercially successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour, was born in Fritch, Texas. After serving in the military towards the end of the Vietnam War and working in an oil refinery, he decided to chase his true passion: comedy. After years of toiling at clubs - as well as a brief period where he moved to Mexico and opened a pottery studio - he got his first really big break in 2000 by touring with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy in the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour." A celebration of down-home humor in which White's persona as a suit-wearing red state hipster with a clever mind and a dirty mouth was the outlier among the more family-friendly comedians, was very successful, grossing around $15 million. He parlayed that renown into appearances on shows like "Reno 911" (Comedy Central 2003-09), and the American remake of the hit Australian comedy "Kath & Kim" (NBC 2008). He also was in the movies "Sex & The City 2" (2010), "Horrible Bosses" (2011) and "Jayne Mansfield's Car" (2012). Besides movies and TV shows, White's stand-up specials, including "They Call Me Tater Salad" (2004), in which he reveals the origin of his long held nickname, and "You Can't Fix Stupid" (2006), ran regularly on Comedy Central. In 2008, White ran afoul of the law, with less than a gram of marijuana being found on his private plane, an amount that White later quipped that he considered being "out of marijuana." That didn't stop the state of Texas from designating April 27, 2009 as "Ron White Day."