Ebsen, who played Jed Clampett, Barnaby Jones, many others, dies

Bob Thomas

Monday, July 7, 2003 | 11:27 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- Buddy Ebsen, the loose-limbed dancer turned Hollywood actor 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 Sunday morning at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, said Pam Hope, an administrative nursing supervisor. He had been admitted to the hospital, near his home in Palos Verdes Estates, last month for treatment of an undisclosed illness.

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." 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.

Ebsen once performed his dance routine at the old El Rancho Vegas on the Strip, across from where the Sahara Hotel now stands.

A canceled paycheck from the El Rancho to Ebsen is on display at the Casino Legends Hall of Fame museum at the Tropicana hotel. Ebsen was paid $914.96 for his appearance, according to the check that is dated May 15, 1952.

Casino Legends museum founder and curator Steve Cutler said that while such checks were cut weekly it was not known whether Ebsen's check was for a single performance or a seven-day engagement.

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 national favorite. While scorned by most critics, "The Beverly Hillbillies" attracted as many as 60 million viewers on CBS between 1962 and 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 kinda liked that."

The show was still earning good ratings when it was canceled by CBS because advertisers shunned a series that attracted primarily a rural audience.

Max Baer Jr., who portrayed Jethro on the "Beverly Hillbillies" and is a longtime Nevada resident, said Ebsen was like a father to him.

"My father (heavyweight boxing champ Max Baer) died in 1959, and I went to work with Buddy in 1962 and I became like a surrogate son to him," Baer said Monday in a phone interview from his Northern Nevada home.

"He was the consummate professional and taught me a lot about acting. He was not pretentious. He went to the premier of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' in his pickup truck."

Baer visited Ebsen in the hospital eight days ago.

"I just put my hand on his head and, without opening his eyes, he smiled and said 'Maxy,"' Baer said. "I told him a few jokes. He was cheerful to the end. He lived a real good life."

Baer said that while he was type-cast as the dim-witted nephew on the hit series, Ebsen was able to more easily shake the burden of type-casting because, as Ebsen had insisted, his character was a straight man to the over-the-top characters.

"In real life Buddy was a dignified person and in his television life, Jed Clampett was a dignified person," Baer said. "It's easy to get other roles when your character is a real person like Jed Clampett was.

"We (actors) are not remembered so much for our body of work but for the one performance -- the single thing -- that separates us from the pack. Buddy loved Jed Clampett and he did not mind people remembering him for that character."

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.

"With such a glut of private-eye shows, I didn't see how another one could succeed," Ebsen once said. "I really thought the network was making a mistake." But the series clicked and lasted until 1980.

"I'm the luckiest actor alive," Ebsen said in 1978. "There's not anyone I'd trade jobs with right now."

Ebsen, who was 6 feet 3, 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 Astaire. 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."

He was born Christian Rudolph Ebsen in Belleville, Ill., on April 2, 1908. His father owned a dancing school, where the nicknamed Buddy learned the fundamentals. The family moved to Orlando, Fla., when the boy was 10, and he began pre-medical studies at the University of Florida and Rollins College. But family financial problems forced him to leave school and, at 20, he decided to try his luck as a dancer in New York.

"I arrived in New York with $26.25 in my pocket and a letter of introduction to a friend of a friend's cousin," he recalled. "I got a job in a road company, but the producer said, 'That boy one foot taller than the rest of 'em -- out!' "

Over the years, the actor also found time to write musical shows, "Turn to the Right" and "Champagne Dada," and a play, "The Champagne General." A lifelong sailor, he piloted his "Polynesian Concept" to victory in a Los Angeles-Honolulu race in 1968 and manufactured ocean-going catamarans.

In 2001, Ebsen started a new, unexpected career: fiction writing. His novel "Kelly's Quest," released by an e-book publisher based in Indiana, became a best seller. He also penned an autobiography, "The Other Side of Oz."

Ebsen was first married to Ruth Cambridge, Walter Winchell's "Girl Friday," and they had two daughters. The marriage ended in divorce, and he met and married his second wife, Nancy, while both were in the Coast Guard. They had four daughters and a son.

Sun reporter

Ed Koch contributed to this story.