(1010 WINS) (Torrance, CA) The man who played poor mountaineer Jed Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies” is in a California hospital.
Buddy Ebsen was admitted to the hospital in Torrance for an undisclosed illness. It’s not known when the 95-year-old actor was admitted.
The Daily Breeze of Torrance quotes a hospital spokeswoman as saying Ebsen’s condition is good. Ebsen started his nine-year stint as Clampett in 1962, when “The Beverly Hillbillies” premiered. He later took the title role in the detective series “Barnaby Jones.”
—Must admit I don’t much like the fellah; he acted very poorly when Miz’ Jane ran for Congress back in the '80s, taking out ads that she was “too liberal” for him. But still, sorry to hear he’s right poorly . . .
Kulp ran unopposed in the primary and won the Democratic nomination. But Buddy Ebsen, who played Jed Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” campaigned against her in the general election. He taped a radio ad for Kulp’s opponent, Bud Shuster, which said: “I dropped [Nancy] a note to say, ‘Hey Nancy, I love you dearly but you’re too liberal for me. I’ve got to go with Bud Shuster.’” Shuster beat Kulp by 117,203 to 59,449.
—Now, I’m sure he’s a very nice man, and he was a very good actor (and dancer), and I’m glad that he’s lived to a comfortable old age. But it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that he’d use his “Jed” persona to shoot down Nancy Kulp. I just don’t think Granny would have approved.
I’ve got him on my Celebrity Death Pool list.
Do I wish for him to get better, because I like him, or do I hope he dies, just to get points? What a morbid game…
Back in the 80’s, I called up a friend of mine who worked at the L.A. Times. I asked her what she was working on. She said she was writing Buddy Ebsen’s obituary. I said, wow, I didn’t know he had died. She chuckled and said, no, he hadn’t died, but they keep obits on file for aging celebs and update them periodically.
So, to bring a long, pointless story to a close, I hope Mr. Ebsen recovers, but, if not, I know a person who helped write his obituary for the L.A. times.
I seem to have bad habit of posting in Eve’s threads with pointless stories. Sorry about that, Eve.
Let us not forget that long before Ebsen played Jed (or Barnaby Jones), he was a song and dance man, tapping away with Shirley Temple in Captain January (my alltime fave Temple movie) and gliding with Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1936. He was cast as the original Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz, until a reaction to the aluminum makeup sent him to the ER and off the film.
What p.o.d me about the Nancy Kulp issue is that it was a Congressional race in Pennsylvania, a state to which Florida born-California resident Ebsen had no connection- I doubt he could have picked Bud Schuster’s name out of a hat prior to the election.
I remember some years ago Buddy was divorcing his wife of many years to marry a much younger woman. He’s an avid coin collector and sold off a large chunk of his collection to finance his divorce; as memory serves his wife received a settlement of around $8 million.
Ebsen is a conservative but was initially willing to remain silent about Kulp’s campaign despite his disagreements with her political views. However, Kulp opened the can of worms be declaring that all of her former Beverly Hillbillies co-stars were supporting her campaign. When reporters then went to Ebsen to ask if this was true he then stated that while he liked Kulp personally he didn’t support her politically. Kulp responded. Ebsen responded. And then they commenced a-fuedin’.
But I’d have to declare Kulp the instigator for claiming an endorsment she didn’t have.
I can understand why she lied though. Certainly when I’m choosing an elected official, the first thing in my head is WWJD? (What Would Jed/Jethro Do?).
I didn’t realize until recently that Nancy Kulp came out as a lesbian in her final years (by which time nobody cared). To the best of my knowledge, Buddy Ebsen has never publicly admitted he’s a lesbian.
My favorite tid-bits of trivia from the surviving cast members I’ve seen:
Irene Ryan (Granny) was a chain smoker (something like 5 packs a day- have you ever seen the Beverly Hillbillies cigarette ads, incidentally? They were made with the cast at the time of the show) and, believe it or not, something of a glamor gal off camera- she always wore furs and lots of jewelry. Max Baer was remembering her temper- during one of the Flatt & Scruggs appearances she went from a sweet tow-tapping granny woman to a harpie who hit him as hard as she could and screamed “G*ddamn it! Stop standing in my key light!”
Raymond “Mr. Drysdale” Bailey was unanimously declared one of the most difficult to work with actors in Hollywood, the probable reason he never went further. Once Paul Henning took him to his sister’s home in MO when Hillbillies was doing some on location shooting; Hennings’ sister lived in a rambling Victorian house that Bailey immediately mumbled looked like a whorehouse. When Henning’s sister came to teh door, Bailey politely asked “Pardon me, ma’am, are you the madam?”
Harriet “Mrs. Drysdale” McGibbon became a virtual recluse in later years due in large part to the fact that she ballooned to almost 300 lbs. She was remembered by everybody as funny and warm, though, and left a fairly sizeable estate to her alma mater.
Donna Douglas had a short affair with Elvis while filming FRANKIE AND JOHNNY but is most famous as the one person Elvis ever shagged who won’t talk about it. She also sued the producers of Sister Act claiming it was based on a novel she owned the rights to but she lost.
I remember on the True Hollywood Story that Donna Douglas (who looks JUST like an ageing Ellie Mae-someone needs a makeover!), said that when Ryan was dying, she went to see her, but the hospital wouldn’t let her visit. She was very upset about this.
Jethro, meanwhile, through divorce, high-living, and the fact that he had a terrible contract (he made more from appearances at county fairs than he did from the show but was contractually obligated), was penniless, deeply in debt, and sleeping on friend’s sofas within a couple of years after the show’s last episode. Typecast and unable to work, he sold everything he owned, cashed out his retirement and life insurance, borrowed as much money as he could from lenders and then as much as he could from friends, and made the movie MACON COUNTY LINE for just over $100,000. The movie grossed more than $35 million, making him the millions that the show never did. He was briefly married to a porn actress later and today can be seen on any talkshow that will have him blathering on and on about the Beverly Hilllbillie’s Casino he wants to build.
Buddy Ebsen recently wrote a novel and has had several exhibits of his paintings .
In an interview I saw with Baer, interviewed about Kulp declaring that the cast were behind her, said something to the effect: “Nancy, God love her, knew better! She knew that Buddy was a conservative Republican from Day 1. She had no business even indirectly implying his endorsement.”
Hope Ebsen gets better. The last time I saw him on a talk show back in the late-90s he seemed in fairly good health for a man his age, though he was definitely hard of hearing.
But his voice is still on the soundtrack in the We’re off to see the Wizard Chorus it is him and not Haley singing.
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” to me is the film he is best in
Sorry he was mean to Miz Jane. I hope he gets better, he gave too many entertaining minutes to me for me not to remember those first way above anything else.
“You take a blank piece of paper and, whatever you’re thinking, you write it down. I’m very satisfied if, in my mind, it increased the value of the paper. That’s what writing should do. It should increase the value of the paper.”
Buddy Ebsen