Lester Alvin Burnett, better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other B-movie cowboys. He was also a prolific singer-songwriter who is reported to have played proficiently over 100 musical instruments, sometimes more than one simultaneously. His career, beginning in 1934, spanned four decades, including a regular role on CBS-TV's Petticoat Junction in the 1960s.
Burnette in 1937
Grave of Smiley Burnette, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to those whom they accompany.
Sancho Panza, a squire, can be regarded as a sidekick to Don Quixote in Cervantes' famed fictional work.