Hardy grew up in Sanford, Florida, and graduated from Seminole High School. After high school, he served in the Navy and then attended Seminole State College. There, he did his first play, went on to Florida Atlantic University, and got a BFA. In 1978, his father passed away and he went home to Orlando and got his first commercial, and later went to UCLA. He then went on to NYC where he lived for 30 years and did numerous commercials throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s, he starred as the Petes' dad Don Wrigley on the Nickelodeon series
35 Hours (1995), one of his favorite roles.
