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 The Rifleman (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.