Playing Luanne Platter on ‘King of the Hill’ Was ‘A Blessing from God’ for Brittany Murphy
If Luanne Platter is your favorite King of the Hill character, you’re in good company. In a clip from her 2003 episode of MTV Diary, the late Brittany Murphy shared just how much she enjoyed voicing Hank’s blonde niece, too.
“It’s such a pleasure because she’s such a deliciously delightful character that you just get lost in her world,” the then 25-year-old recalled, crediting Luanne with offering her a reprieve from the limelight. “I could be in this depressing atmosphere and then go over to this place and be the last one in the recording studio and be Luanne.”
It’s not just Luanne’s sunny disposition that kept Murphy coming back season after season either. To her, working on the show was “a blessing from God.”
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“It’s a series that allows you all this freedom,” she explained. “They’ve allowed me to travel around the world doing my other job, and I always feel after I’ve been gone for a while that it’s like coming home from being away at college, coming home to your family.”
That love and affection clearly went both ways. Murphy, who died at age 32 in 2009, didn’t have her role recast in King of the Hill’s revival, a decision that showrunner Saladin K. Patternson said came from a place of deep admiration for the late actress. “The analogy I use as a sports fan is, sometimes the best way to honor someone’s work is to hang their jersey up in the rafters as a show of respect and what they meant to the organization,” he told IGN.
Or in the case of King of the Hill, hopefully this means that Luanne’s Manger Babies are displayed in a glass case at the Channel 84 studios.
