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TV Star Buddy Ebsen Dies at 95

Posted on: Monday, 7 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Actor Buddy Ebsen, who starred in the television series, "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Barnaby Jones," has died, a hospital official said Monday. He was 95.

Ebsen died Sunday morning, said Pam Hope, an administrative nursing supervisor at Torrance Memorial Medical Center where Ebsen was admitted. Ebsen had been listed in good condition June 26 for an undisclosed illness.

Ebsen, who lives in nearby Palos Verdes Estates, began his television career and nine-year run as mountaineer Jed Clampett in 1962, when "The Beverly Hillbillies" premiered. Ebsen later starred in the CBS detective series "Barnaby Jones," which ran from 1973 until 1980.

Ebsen also co-starred in the TV series "Davy Crockett" and in films including "Breakfast at Tiffany's." He has written two books, "Kelly's Quest," and an autobiography, "The Other Side of Oz."

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 fell ill because of the aluminum makeup on his skin and was replaced as the Tin Man 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, head of a newly rich Ozark family plunked down in snooty Beverly Hills, Ebsen became a national favorite. "The Beverly Hillbillies" attracted as many as 60 million viewers on CBS between 1962 and 1971.

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.

"With such a glut of private-eye shows, I didn't see how another one could succeed," he 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."

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!'"

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