# RIP Donna Douglas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795 "2015-01-02T19:43:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/21 "2015-01-03T20:53:09Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > She was also Janet Tyler (the woman under the bandages) on the _Twilight Zone_ episode “Eye of the Beholder.” Oh God, that episode seriously traumatized me when I saw it in its first run. I was about 12. RIP, Ellie May. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/22 "2015-01-03T22:20:26Z")
So Jethro is the last person standing from the Hillbillies. Granny died first. Drysdale . Miss Hathaway and Jed. Donna and Max were all that was left of the cast. The character with the sixth grade education outlasted them all. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/23 "2015-01-04T00:52:34Z")
Gettin lonesome at the fancy eatin table. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/24 "2015-01-04T01:34:09Z")
Dash Riprock (Larry Pennell), Ellie’s on again off again beau, died a couple years ago. One of the actresses (Sharon Tate) who worked in the Bank’s “Secretarial Pool” was killed by Charles Manson’s family according to wiki. She was married to Roman Polanski. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/25 "2015-01-04T01:39:31Z")
> [@slowlearner](#): > > Gettin lonesome at the fancy eatin table. In the billy-ard room, y’mean. 😃 Use that there fancy pot-passer and hand me th’ grits ‘n’ jowls, will ya? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/26 "2015-01-04T01:44:27Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I wouldn’t have guessed she was 81 - that’s my mom’s age! > [@aceplace57](#): > > Ellie Mae was 81? OMG only 1 year younger than my mom? I would have sworn she was only 18 or 19 when the show started in 1963. > > I knew Max Baer was older than Jethro. He was born in 1937. Donna in 1933. It’s incredible to find out she was 30 and playing a teenage Ellie Mae. > > Let me get my jaw off the floor. RIP Donna Douglas. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Huh. For some reason, I thought she was 83. > > You know who else is 81? Barbara ‘99’ Feldon. The paper here said 82. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/27 "2015-01-04T04:46:12Z")
I couldn’t believe the clueless headline that showed up on google news - from eOnline - that referred to her as the ‘matriarch’ of the 60s show Beverley Hillbillies… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/28 "2015-01-04T06:08:11Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > She was also Janet Tyler (the woman under the bandages) on the _Twilight Zone_ episode “Eye of the Beholder.” According to wikipedia, she was only the unbandaged woman. The actress under the bandages was Maxine Stewart. [Eye of the Beholder - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_Beholder#Production) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/29 "2015-01-04T06:16:41Z")
Here’s her 1999 appearance on “The Nanny” as herself, but in the Ellie May character. [- YouTube](http://youtu.be/mR_TwdUvlRU?t=5m23s) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/30 "2015-01-04T07:55:01Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > So Jethro is the last person standing from the Hillbillies. Granny died first. Drysdale . Miss Hathaway and Jed. Not exactly. Bea Benaderet (Cousin Pearl) was the first to go. She passed away in 1968, while she was still working as Kate Bradley on _ **Petticoat Junction** _. As an aside, Wally Cox, Miss Jane’s fellow birdwatching enthusiast Caspar Biddle, departed this vale of tears in 1973. Frank Wilcox, who played oil tycoon John Brewster, died in 1974. Harriet E. MacGibbon, aka Mrs Drysdale, went to that big mansion in the sky in 1987. Louis Nye, the inimitable Sonny Drysdale, managed to hang on until 2005. And the show debuted in 1962, not '63. It’d be interesting to see how many more of the often recurring guest stars are still among us (or not, as the case may be). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/31 "2015-01-04T13:22:11Z")
Here’s a list of all the actors with ten or more appearances (lots more with fewer than 10, though), with their date of death or the current age, whichever applies. Looks like three of them are still alive. Before you look. . . can you guess which three? [spoiler]Buddy Ebsen…2003… Jed Clampett… 274 Episodes…1962-1971 Irene Ryan…1973…Granny…274 Episodes…1962-1971 Donna Douglas…2014… Elly May Clampett…274 Episodes…1962-1971 Max Baer…(77)…Jethro Bodine…274 Episodes…1962-1971 Raymond F. Bailey…1980…Milburn Drysdale… 247 Episodes…1962-1971 Nancy Kulp…1991…Jane Hathaway…246 Episodes…1962-1971 Harriet MacGibbon… 1987… Margaret Drysdale… 55 Episodes…1962-1969 Bea Benaderet…1968… Pearl Bodine…23 Episodes…1962-1967 Shug Fisher…1984… Shorty Kellems…17 Episodes…1969-1970 Danielle Mardi… (67)… Helen Thompson…17 Episodes…1969-1971 Linda Kaye Henning… (70)… Jethrine Bodine… 16 Episodes…1962-1970 Sharon Tate…1969… Janet Trego… 15 Episodes…1963-1965 Frank Wilcox… 1974… John Brewseter… 14 Episodes…1962-1966 Hope Summers… 1979… Elverna Bradshaw…13 Episodes…1963-1970 Roger Torrey… 1985… Mark Templeton…12 Episodes…1969-1970 Larry Pennell…2013… Dash Riprock…10 Episodes…1965-1969 Frank Cady… 2012… Sam Drucker… 10 Episodes…1968-1970 Notes: Linda Kaye Henning supplied Jethrine’s voice. According to some stories, Roger Torrey (the Frog Man) was trying out for the role of Jethro, but his roommate Max Baer ended up getting the part. The actress playing Janet Trego wore a dark wig, although she did appear in one episode as a different character with her normal hair.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/32 "2015-01-04T17:41:19Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Here’s a list of all the actors with ten or more appearances (lots more with fewer than 10, though), with their date of death or the current age, whichever applies. Looks like three of them are still alive. Before you look. . . can you guess which three? Huh! I’d’ve thought that “Cousin Roy” Clark would be on the list, but I see on Wiki that he was only in three (!) episodes. Joi Lansing (one of my first infatuations) was in more than that (five). I knew Max was still alive; I would never have guessed the two others. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/33 "2015-01-04T22:59:22Z")
Jethrine wasn’t Max Baer in drag??? ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/34 "2015-01-04T23:05:14Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Jethrine wasn’t Max Baer in drag??? Yes, but with a real woman’s voice. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/35 "2015-01-04T23:08:53Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > According to wikipedia, she was only the unbandaged woman. The actress under the bandages was Maxine Stewart. [Eye of the Beholder - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_Beholder#Production) Certainly it was Maxine Stuart’s voice (until the end of the episode, when Donna Douglas did a very skillful imitation of Stuart’s voice). But the audio doesn’t sound as though the recording was made by someone actually under the bandages–it sounds as though it was made in front of a microphone and then just played over the visuals. I happened to watch that episode during the recent Syfy Channel marathon (just before Douglas’ death was announced, by chance). From the quality of acting Douglas did at the end, it’s a shame they didn’t let her do the whole episode. She could have carried it off. But Stuart (about a dozen years older than Douglas) had a reputation as a stage actress, and I suppose the producers of that Zone episode felt that such gravitas was called for. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/36 "2015-01-05T22:54:05Z")
Far from being a teenager, she had a teenaged son for the last few years of the show’s run. By all accounts a sweet if weird person, though she looked sort of Baby Jane terrifying with those pigtails in her last few decades. A funny story she told: she gave her acting teachers nightmares with her southern accent when she moved to Hollywood, but finally managed to drop it just in time to get the role of Elly Mae which required a thick southern accent. I can think of three main credits: Elly Mae, _The Twilight Zone_ episode, and _Frankie and Johnnie_ with Elvis (who apparently she had a fling with but did not like to talk about). Anything else memorable from her career? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/37 "2015-01-06T02:48:54Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > . . .I can think of three main credits: Elly Mae, _The Twilight Zone_ episode, and _Frankie and Johnnie_ with Elvis (who apparently she had a fling with but did not like to talk about). Anything else memorable from her career? I wouldn’t call this ‘memorable,’ but in a departure from the Elly May character, she had a brief role in a “Night Gallery” vignette [Last Rites for a Dead Druid](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070925/combined), in which she is enticing Bill Bixby to cheat on his wife. Coincidentally, Buddy Ebsen is in another vignette from that same airing. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/38 "2015-01-07T04:10:57Z")
> [@Vashbul](#): > > “This has been a Film-ways prezzen-tayshun!” I can remember that as if it was yesterday. And it still brings a smile to my face. She will be missed but not forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795/39 "2015-01-10T17:41:47Z")
I also scanned the IMDb listing for the show to see who else appeared of odd interest and/or might still be around. David Prowse appeared in one episode! Darth Vader and Ellie Mae. The real Odd Couple. Don Rickles, Julie Newmar, Rob Reiner, Bernie Kopell, Rich Little, June Lockhart, Pat Harrington Jr., Jo Ann Pflug, Sharon Farrell, Edy Williams and on and on. Even Robert Osborne had one of his few acting roles on the show. Yes, that _Robert Osborne_. Sitcom legend writer/producer Susan Harris appeared as a harem girl on the show. Her only acting credit aside from bits on her show _Soap_. Lots of musical guests, of course. Like Roy Clark. But also a local group called “The Enemies” fronted by Cory Wells, later of 3 Dog Night fame. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donna-douglas/708795.md?page=1)