Herbert Coward, best known for playing Toothless Man in the 1972 classic Deliverance, has died in a car crash aged 85.

Coward died alongside his partner Bertha Brooks, 78, his beloved pet Chihuahua and squirrel after his silver Nissan was hit by a truck driven by a 16-year-old on Wednesday afternoon. 

Neither Coward nor Brooks were wearing seatbelts and the teen driver was not speeding, ABC news reported.  

The actor was attempting to turn onto the U.S. Route 23 Highway in Haywood County, North Carolina after a medical appointment but failed to yield the right of way, law enforcement told FOX Carolina. 

The 16-year-old survived the crash and was taken to a local hospital following the collision. 

Herbert Coward died aged 74 in a car crash along with a friend and his beloved pet Chihuahua and squirrel

The actor (pictured left) is best known for playing Toothless Man in classic 1972 film Deliverance 

State Troopers determined that there was no crime committed and the teenager was not charged. 

Coward shot to fame following the release of Deliverance, in which he delivered some of the most iconic lines including ‘He got a real pretty mouth, ain’t he?’

Most of his lines were improvised, Coward later told News 13. 

Coward got the role after meeting Burt Reynolds when the two worked together at Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Reynolds insisted on brining him in for the role. 

‘He couldn’t read or write and he stuttered, but he was a wonderful actor,’ Reynolds said in a cast reunion video in 2017.

He became a recognizable figure following the iconic film, but did not work again for another 35 years. 

In later life the actor produced Ghost Town: The Movie and portrayed played Harmon Teaster, a cowboy in one episode of Hillbilly Blood in 2013. 

In perhaps the best known scene from the film, his character and his fellow hillbilly sodomized a man in front of his friend who was tied to a tree in the forest

Coward was cast in the role due to a friendship with leading man Burt Reynolds  (pictured left) as he recruited him for the role