Dale is a character on The Walking Dead that has a special place in a lot of people's hearts. If he's not hitting you with one of his classic "Dale Faces," he was trying to get the group to remember their humanity during their short stint at Hershel's Farm.
Actor Jeffery DeMunn played Dale for the first two seasons on the hit AMC show, and sat down to recall his time on the show and his relationship with the series' original showrunner, Frank Darabont, with Cleveland.com. "I immediately took to Frank and liked him and trusted him," DeMunn said of Darabont. "And I think he trusted me."
DeMunn continued to reflect on his relationship with Darabont, which led to him being cast in The Walking Dead. "I was doing a play down in Texas and Frank called and said, 'Hey, you want to come to Atlanta and kill zombies?' I didn't have to think about it. It was Frank. I knew it was going to be quality," he recalled. "The writing in the beginning was just amazing, as was that original cast. You can't talk about 'The Walking Dead' without talking about the extreme heat. I was always grateful for Dale's hat, by the way. It was serious heat and we were working all day. The heat had a way of uniting us all, cast and crew. You kept an eye on your friends under those conditions."
With Darabont being unceremoniously fired half way through the production of the second season, DeMunn knew that his time on the show needed to come to an end. He explained that Dale's death was his decision, and that he was, "furious about how Frank was pushed out of the show. I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realized, 'Oh, I can quit.' So I called them and said, 'It's a zombie show. Kill me. I don't want to do this anymore.' It was an immense relief to me."
DeMunn is currently starring in the Showtime series Billions. The Walking Dead, meanwhile, still keeps chugging along and has already been renewed for a ninth season on AMC.
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