Back when TV viewers were limited to three channel options, a silly show called The Beverly Hillbillies started at the top of the Nielsen ratings and stayed there for nine yeadrs. Panned by critics, the quirky comedy entertained audiences and made several actors famous. So, are any Beverly Hillbillies cast members still alive?
‘The Beverly Hillbillies’: A story about a man named Jed
In 1962, the first episode of The Beverly Hillbillies introduced America to Jed, Granny, and Elly May Clampett, along with their cousin Pearl and her grown son, Jethro Bodine. After the Clampetts strike it rich, Bodine drives them to California, where they meet banker Milburn Drysdale and his unpretentious secretary, Miss Jane Hathaway.
Each Beverly Hillbillies episode opened and closed with a portion of “The Ballad of Jed Clampett.” Composed by show creator Paul Henning, the banjo-driven ditty was performed by the renowned bluegrass duo Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.
While the opening credits roll, Flatt sings about the impoverished family patriarch, Jed Clampett, who was hunting for dinner but came home covered in crude oil instead. Jed’s kinfolk recommended he take his fortune and move to the land of “swimming pools and movie stars.” Closing credits invite viewers to return the following week for a “heapin’ helping” of hospitality.
Lester Flatt died in Nashville on May 11, 1979. Earl Scruggs also died in Nashville but decades later, on Mar. 28, 2012. However, they weren’t the first celebrity deaths associated with the CBS show. That dubious distinction goes to Bea Benaderet, who played Cousin Pearl Bodine and died in 1968, three years before the show ended in 1971. As of this writing, only one Beverly Hillbillies cast member remains alive.
Max Baer Jr. is the one ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ cast member still alive
Now 85, Max Baer Jr. didn’t let being typecast as the beefy dimwit Jethro Bodine ruin his Hollywood career. After The Beverly Hillbillies, he wrote and starred in Macon County Line and The Wild McCullochs. Another film project, Ode to Billy Joe, grossed exponentially more than it cost to make, providing Baer the wherewithal to purchase the licensing rights to The Beverly Hillbillies brand from CBS, USA Today reports.
Post-Hillbillies Baer also tried his luck in the gambling industry. His vision of Jethro Bodine’s Beverly Hillbillies Mansion & Casino didn’t pan out, but bettors can still play Beverly Hillbillies-branded slot machines in local casinos. As Baer’s website explains, the project is not off the table and may yet come to fruition.
And here’s how his Beverly Hillbillies castmates died:
Kindly droppin’ in on Jed and all his kin
Granny was the next to go after Pearl
Irene Noblette made her showbiz debut in San Francisco at age 11. At 20, she wed her vaudeville co-star. The marriage didn’t last, but she kept his surname. Before playing the moonshine-making Daisy “Granny” Clampett, Ryan made movies, including Bonzo Goes to College and The WAC From Walla Walla. Dearly Departed Podcast reveals that despite her wizened countenance, Ryan was a mere five years older than Ebsen, who played her son.
After Beverly Hillbillies ended, Ryan hoofed her way to Broadway for a turn as a geriatric swinger in Pippin. The critically acclaimed actor took ill shortly thereafter and returned to California, where she died on Apr. 26, 1973, at age 70, her New York Times obituary states.
The third time’s the charm for Mr. Drysdale
The man who would be Milburn wore many hats before landing the part of the Clampetts’ banker. Born on May 6, 1904, Raymond Bailey headed to Hollywood as soon as he graduated from high school but gave up and became a stockbroker instead. Sometime later, Bailey made another failed stab at movie success and went to work on a Hawaiian pineapple plantation.
Bailey’s third attempt at fame involved auditioning for Mr. Drysdale. He appeared in 248 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies and died of a heart attack on Apr. 15, 1980, in Irvine, California, IMDb reports. He was 75.
Buddy Ebsen was famous before and after ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’
Born on Apr. 2, 1908, Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr. (aka Frank “Buddy” Ebsen) was 10 when his dad moved the family from Illinois to Florida and opened a dance academy. Ebsen and his sister created a dance routine and moved to New York, where the duo appeared in Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 before taking their act to Hollywood.
After The Beverly Hillbillies, Ebsen’s TV trajectory continued on series such as Hawaii Five-O, Bonanza, Alias Smith and Jones, and the made-for-TV Smash-Up on Interstate 5. Ebsen’s detective series Barnaby Jones debuted in 1973 and ran for three years. The actor died in California on Jul. 6, 2003, at age 95, IMDb reports.
Miss Hathaway: Was she or wasn’t she?
When Nancy Jane Kulp set her sights on a Hollywood career, she intended to be a publicist, not an actor. Ultimately convinced otherwise, the college-educated Kulp enjoyed a respectable TV career, including appearances on The Loretta Young Show and Perry Mason and a four-year stint on The Bob Cummings Show before portraying the bird-loving bachelorette Miss Jane Hathaway.
After The Beverly Hillbillies, Kulp moved back to her home state of Pennsylvania, where she ran for Congress in 1984. An underdog from the get-go, she was undoubtedly dismayed when Ebsen offered his support to her Republican opponent because he found the erstwhile Miss Hathaway “too liberal” for his taste. Had she lived in truly liberal times, Kulp might have come out instead of hinting at her personal life when she told author Boze Hadleigh:
“As long as you reproduce my reply word for word, and the question, you may use it … I’d appreciate it if you’d let me phrase the question. There is more than one way. Here’s how I would ask it: ‘Do you think that opposites attract?’ My own reply would be that I’m the other sort — I find that birds of a feather flock together. That answers your question.”
Following her failed congressional run, Kulp relocated to Connecticut and then Palm Desert, California, where she died on Feb. 3, 1991. She was 69.
Elly May all the way
Remarkably similar in demeanor to her critter-loving, cement pond–swimming counterpart, Donna Douglas didn’t struggle to play the part of Elly May. Married at 17, she had a baby right away and still won the titles of Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans, WAFB reports.
Determined to make it in showbiz, the future Clampett invented a stage name, divorced her husband, entrusted her baby to her mom, and moved to Manhattan. Soon, she landed the part of the “ugly” surgical patient Janet Tyler in the classic Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder.” Aired on Nov. 11, 1960, her performance caught the attention of Hillbillies casting directors, who offered her the part of Elly May without delay, IMDb explains.
The Beverly Hillbillies debuted on Douglas’ 30th birthday, and she appeared in every episode. She also made guest appearances in The Defenders and Sam Benedict and the Elvis Presley movie Frankie and Johnny while employed as Elly May.
After Hillbillies, Douglas made a few gospel albums and published a cookbook. She also filed and lost a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company for alleged plagiarism. Another lawsuit, against the Mattel toy company, for making a doll in Elly May’s likeness was settled in a manner amenable to both sides, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Douglas died of pancreatic cancer on New Year’s Day in Zachary, Louisiana, IMDb says. She was 82.
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