Buddy Ebsen

Buddy Ebsen as "Jed Clampett"

Buddy Ebsen (April 2, 1908 â€" July 6, 2003) was an American actor and dancer, who is best-remembered for his role as Jed Clampett in the popular television series The Beverly Hillbillies.

Early years

Born Christian Rudolph Ebsen Jr. in Belleville, Illinois; his father, Christian Ebsen, was Danish and his mother, Frances, was Latvian.[1] He was raised in Belleville until age 10, when his family moved to Palm Beach County, Florida. After a brief stay there, Ebsen and his family, in 1920, relocated to Orlando, Florida. Ebsen and his sisters learned to dance at the dance studio his father operated in Orlando. He graduated from Orlando High School in 1926. Initially interested in a medical career, Ebsen attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida from 1926-1927; and then Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida from 1927-1928. Family financial problems, that resulted from the collapse of the Florida land boom, forced him to leave college for good at age 20.

Professional career

Ebsen left Orlando in the summer of 1928 to try his luck as a dancer on the Vaudeville circuit. When he arrived in New York, he had $26.75 in his pocket. Ebsen spent the early 1930s performing in supper clubs, vaudeville theaters, and in Broadway Productions with his sister Vilma Ebsen. The Ebsens moved to Hollywood, and made their film debut in 1935's Broadway Melody of 1936. It was Vilma Ebsen's first and only film; however, Buddy Ebsen later appeared in various screen musicals including Born to Dance, Captain January (both 1936) and The Girl of the Golden West (1938). Ebsen was noted for his unusual, almost surreal dancing and singing style (see, for example, his contribution to the "Swingin' the Jinx Away" finale of Born to Dance).

Buddy Ebsen originally cast as the Tin Man

Ebsen was originally cast as the "Tin Man" in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. He recorded all his songs, went through all the rehearsals, and started filming with the rest of the cast. He was rushed to the hospital nine days after filming began, when his lungs seized after a week of inhaling aluminum dust from the dangerously experimental "tin" makeup.

While Ebsen was in the hospital for two weeks, recovering from a near-fatal allergic reaction to the dust, he was replaced by Jack Haley. Haley didn't run the same risk, as the makeup was changed in the meantime from a dust to a paste. (Although Haley re-recorded most of Ebsen's vocals, Ebsen's midwestern voice with the enunciated "R" in the word "Wizard" can still be heard on the soundtrack during a couple of the reprises of "We're Off to See the Wizard".) As noted in a documentary included with the 2005 DVD release of Wizard of Oz, MGM did not publicize the reasons for Ebsen leaving the film, and even Haley wasn't made aware of why Ebsen left until later; in an interview videotaped before his death (also included on the DVD), Ebsen recalled that the studio heads didn't believe he was sick until someone tried to order Ebsen back to the set and was intercepted by an angry nurse. No footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man has to date surfaced.

After the Oz debacle, Ebsen appeared only in minor Westerns for many years. From 1941 to 1946, Ebsen served as a lieutenant in the United States Coast Guard.

Ebsen lost yet another iconic landmark role: he was originally slated to play Davy Crockett on television for Walt Disney, until Disney saw Fess Parker. Parker played Crockett and Ebsen was demoted to Crockett's fictional sidekick "George Russell" in the Davy Crockett series produced by Disney in the mid-1950s, which became an astonishing audience sensation. Ebsen finally became truly famous in 1962 with the lead role of Jed Clampett in the television show The Beverly Hillbillies. The show depicted a hillbilly family from a fictionalized hamlet in the Ozarks called Bugtussle; striking it rich on oil and moving to a tony neighborhood in Beverly Hills, California. Although scorned by critics, the show was a massive hit, attracting as many as sixty million viewers on CBS between 1962 and 1971. Although Irene Ryan as Granny received the most critical notice, earning two Emmy nominations, and Donna Douglas received the most fan mail and media publicity, Ebsen was the show's most prominent star in the ensemble cast. The series was still earning good ratings when it was canceled by CBS because advertisers shunned a series that attracted a rural audience.

Because Ebsen, unlike many in Hollywood, was a conservative Republican, some fallout resulted from his refusal to endorse fellow Beverly Hillbillies co-star Nancy Kulp for a Congressional seat in Pennsylvania. Ebsen asserted that she was "too liberal" for his tastes and instead endorsed her opponent; they never spoke again. An in-joke on one episode of the "Beverly Hillbillies" was when Jed and Granny remark about seeing Buddy Ebsen and Vilma Ebsen dancing