Otis Burt "Sonny" Shroyer, Jr. (born August 28, 1935 in Valdosta, Georgia) is an American actor from Georgia who has appeared in various television and movie roles. He is best known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Enos Strate in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard. He also starred in a spin-off called Enos based on his Dukes of Hazzard character. Shroyer is married and has two sons, Chris and Mark.

Shroyer attended Florida State University on a football scholarship, but his career was cut short by an injury. He finished his degree at the University of Georgia.

He began a career as a professional model in 1961. His first screen role came in the 1972 film Payday. Shroyer almost became typecast as a bad guy before landing the role of the naive Deputy Enos Strate in the pop culture classic series The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979.

The Dukes of Hazzard role was Shroyer's most visible. His character was given a spinoff series entitled Enos in 1980.

The new show was not a success and was canceled after just 17 episodes. Shroyer returned to The Dukes in 1982 and remained with the series until it ended in 1985. Shroyer also released a children's album in 1982. The album was called "Back in Hazzard."

Shroyer remains active as a character actor. He portrayed University of Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in Forrest Gump, Delbert Birdsong in The Rainmaker, and Governor Jimmie Davis in Ray. He is also a talented country and gospel singer.

Sonny Shroyer was born in Valdosta, Georgia, a small town on the Georgia-Florida border. Shroyer, whose given name is Otis Burt Shroyer Jr., grew up steeped in the traditions of the deep South. He worked in the tobacco warehouses pushing tobacco buggies and helped his father in their fruit stand-ce cream parlor business. His prowess in high school football landed him a football scholarship at Florida State University (he later ended up playing football in the movie Longest Yard, The (1974) with another FSU football player, Burt Reynolds (I)). However, his football career was cut short by an injury, and Shroyer finished his education at the University of Georgia, where he earned his degree in business. In 1961 he posed in football gear for a photographer who was shooting pictures for the back cover of the program for the Georgia-Georgia Tech football game. That picture launched his professional career. After many more print ads and commercials, Sonny landed his first movie roles in Sixteen (1973) with Mercedes McCambridge and Payday (1973) with Rip Torn. His movie career blossomed with many more films, including Gator (1976), Lincoln Conspiracy, The (1977), Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance, The (1978) (TV), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way (1978) and a TV miniseries, Freedom Road (1979) (TV). While working on "Freedom Road," Shroyer, who had gained quite a reputation for playing a "bad guy", was cast in the role of "Enos," the big-grinned, bumbling, dipstick deputy of "Dukes of Hazzard, The" (1979) television series. His popularity on the show prompted Warner Brothers and CBS to spin him off into his own series, "Enos" (1980). "Enos" ran 17 episodes and was nominated for two "Peoples Choice" awards, and for Shroyer as "Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Program." Shroyer remains active in a variety of television network appearances and feature films. Appearances of note have been in the Emmy-winning NBC hit television series "I'll Fly Away" (1991), where he played bigoted, abusive father Bobby Slocum, and as a possessed ex-deputy sheriff in the television series "American Gothic" (1995). He has played a smooth-talking ladies man in a "Love Boat: The Next Wave, The" (1998) episode and a murderer-rapist in "Today's F.B.I." (1981). Additionally, his credits include television appearances as a disturbed parent on "In the Heat of the Night" (1988). He also played University of Alabama head coach Bear Bryant Paramount's smash hit Forrest Gump (1994) with Tom Hanks. Sonny makes numerous benefit appearances, helping out with projects such as the Los Angeles Special Olympics, Muscular Dystrophy, The Cystic Fibrosis Telethon, and the American Cancer Society. He also assisted the "Get High On Life, Not Drugs," sponsored by the Boston Police Department, and recently made a film called "Methamphetamine: Terrorist Attack in South Georgia" produced by friend Bob Brabham. He recently completed a movie called Tale About Bootlegging, A (2005), an independent comedy for the whole family. He plays a small town sheriff in the mountains of North Carolina. When free from public appearances and film or television commitments, he returns to his hometown of Valdosta, where he lives with his wife, Paula.