Tuesday, 8 July 2003

TV actor Buddy Ebsen of Beverly Hillbillies dies at 95


   OBITUARY/LOS ANGELES — Buddy Ebsen, the loose-limbed Broadway dancer who achieved
stardom and riches in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, has died, a hospital official said Monday. He was 95.
   Ebsen died early Sunday at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., said Pam Hope, an administrative nursing supervisor.
   Ebsen and his sister, Vilma, danced through Broadway shows and MGM musicals of the 1930s. When she retired, Ebsen continued on his own, dancing with Shirley Temple and turning dramatic actor.
   Except for an allergy to aluminum paint, he would have been one of the Yellow Brick Road quartet in the classic The Wizard of Oz. But after 10 days of filming, Ebsen, playing the Tin Man, fell ill because of the aluminum makeup on his skin and was replaced by jack Haley.
   Television brought Ebsen's amiable personality to the home screen, first as Fess Parker's sidekick in Davy Crockett.
   As Jed Clampett, the easygoing head of a newly rich Ozark family plunked down in snooty Beverly Hills, Ebsen became a North American favourite. While scorned by most critics, The Beverly Hillbillies attracted as many as 60 million viewers on CBS from 1962 to 1971.
   "As I recall, the only good notice was in the Saturday Review," Ebsen once said. "The critic said the show possessed social comment combined with a high Nielsen, an almost impossible achievement in these days. I kind of liked that."
   The show was still earning good ratings when it was cancelled by CBS because advertisers shunned a series that attracted primarily a rural audience.
   Ebsen returned to series TV in 1973 as Barnaby Jones, a private investigator forced out of retirement to solve the murder of his son Hal, who had taken over the business.
   Barnaby Jones also drew critical blasts. But Ebsen's folksy manner and a warm relationship with his daughter-in-law, played by Lee Meriwether, made the series a success.
   Ebsen, who was six foot three, jerked sodas until he landed a chorus job in the 1928 Whoopee, starring Eddie Cantor. The dancer sent for his sister Vilma and they, formed a dancing team that played vaudeville, supper clubs and shows such as Flying Colors and Ziegfeld Follies.
   A screen test led to an MGM contract for the dance team, and they were a hit in Broadway Melody of 1936.
   Buddy's style was far removed from that of the reigning dance king of films, Fred A e. The angular Ebsen moved with a smooth, sliding shuffle, his arms gyrating like a wind-blown scarecrow. He made a charming partner with the tiny Shirley Temple in Captain January.
   His other films of the 1930s included Banjo on My Knee, Four Girls in White, Girl of the Golden West (Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy) and My Lucky Star (Sonja Henie). His first dramatic role was in Yellow jack with Robert Montgomery. Ebsen's later films included Attack, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Interns, Mail Order Bride, The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. In 1993, he made a cameo appearance as Barnaby Jones in the film version of The Beverly Hillbillies.

--- ASSOCIATED PRESS

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