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Buddy Ebsen

Highest Rated: 100% Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)

Lowest Rated: 25% The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)

Birthday: Apr 2, 1908

Birthplace: Belleville, Illinois, USA

Buddy Ebsen was a talented hoofer who performed an amazing rope-like dance number on stage with his sister Vilma. With the encouragement of his father, who operated a dance studio, he was partnered with his sister as a youngster. Not unlike Fred and Adele Astaire, the Ebsens toured in vaudeville and hit Broadway in the 1920s. The duo danced in "Whoopee" and in one of the last editions of the "Ziegfeld Follies" (1934). Hollywood beckoned and Buddy and Vilma were seen in "Broadway Melody of 1936" (1935) before Vilma retired from show business. Although an MGM contract player, Ebsen was loaned to Fox for "Captain January" (1936), in which he was a ship's hand who danced with Shirley Temple--de rigeur for a screen hoofer of the period. In 1938, MGM producer Mervyn LeRoy cast Ebsen as The Tin Man in the film version of "The Wizard of Oz," set to be released in 1939. Ebsen filmed several sequences before landing in the hospital after the metallic dust from the character's make-up had clogged his lungs. Jack Haley replaced him in the film and Ebsen soon left MGM. He went to RKO for such pictures as "Parachute Battalion" (1941) and "Sing Your Worries Away" (1942), before moving to Republic, where he was then cast in Westerns (like "Utah Wagon Train" 1951), often as the amusing musical sidekick. Ebsen continued to make film appearances throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968, he made his final screen appearance (to that date) in a leading role in Disney's "The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band." By then, Ebsen had established a presence on television. When ABC's "Disneyland" program decided to film ongoing installments of a "Davy Crockett" series, Ebsen was chosen as George Russell, Fess Parker's sidekick, a role he reprised for two films in the mid-1950s. Later, he was Huck Marriner in "Northwest Passage" (NBC, 1958-59). Ebsen was going to retire to his Orange County home in the early 1960s, when producer Paul Henning offered him the lead role in a CBS situation comedy. The premise: a backwoods hick discovers oil, becomes a millionaire, and moves his family to the most chic part of California where his kin become "fish out of water" amongst the more "sophisticated" Angelenos. "The Beverly Hillbillies" (CBS, 1962-71) was considered as low-brow as TV could get by the critics, but the audience kept it on the air. Ebsen seemed to be indelibly linked with Jed Clampett, the family patriarch. After the series ended, he donned a suit, kept the homespun flavor and became private detective "Barnaby Jones" (CBS, 1973-80), who would noodle and drive suspicious parties crazy until they practically begged to tell the truth. Ebsen decided to give series TV one last while whirl in 1984, when he joined the cast of the ABC series "Matt Houston." As Roy Houston, uncle to the title character, he played a detective who had come out of retirement and was raring to do things his way. While Ebsen appeared in the occasional TV movie, like the "Hillbillies" 1981 reunion and "Working Trash" (Fox, 1990), he was more or less retired when he appeared in the cameo role of Barnaby Jones in Penelope Spheeris' big screen version of "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1993). His autobiography, "The Other Side of Oz" was published in 1995, and in 2001, at the age of 93, he became a novelist, publishing a romance titled "Kelly's Quest" that became a best-seller.

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Highest rated movies

100% 62% Broadway Melody of 1938
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100% 78% Attack!
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100% 77% Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier
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90% 76% Broadway Melody of 1936
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88% 91% Breakfast at Tiffany's Watchlist
86% 76% Captain January
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86% 50% Night People
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40% 33% The Interns
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25% 32% The Beverly Hillbillies
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Fury River
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Filmography

Movies

Credit
25% 32% The Beverly Hillbillies Barnaby Jones, P.I. (Character) $42.2M 1993
No Score Yet 61% Working Trash Vandevere Lodge (Character) - 1990
No Score Yet 67% Stone Fox Grandpa (Character) - 1987
No Score Yet 100% Return of the Beverly Hillbillies Jed Clampett (Character) - 1981
No Score Yet No Score Yet Fire on the Mountain John Vogelin (Character) - 1981
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Paradise Connection Stuart Douglas (Character) - 1979
No Score Yet No Score Yet Leave Yesterday Behind Doc (Character) - 1978
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Critical List Charles Sprague (Character) - 1978
No Score Yet 33% Smash-Up on Interstate 5 Al Pearson (Character) - 1976
No Score Yet 44% The Horror at 37,000 Feet Glenn Farlee (Character) - 1973
No Score Yet No Score Yet Tom Sawyer Muff Potter (Character) - 1973
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Joshua Cabe (Character) - 1972
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Long Chase George Austin (Character) - 1972
No Score Yet 50% The President's Plane Is Missing Vice President Kermit Madigan (Character) - 1971
No Score Yet 61% The Family Band Calvin Bower (Character) - 1968
No Score Yet No Score Yet Mail Order Bride Will Lane (Character) - 1964
No Score Yet No Score Yet Fury River Sergeant Hunk Marriner (Character) - 1962
40% 33% The Interns Dr. Sidney Wohl (Character) - 1962
88% 91% Breakfast at Tiffany's Doc Golightly (Character) - 1961
No Score Yet No Score Yet Mission of Danger Hunk Marriner (Character) - 1959
No Score Yet No Score Yet Frontier Rangers Sergeant Hunk Marriner (Character) - 1959
100% 78% Attack! Sfc. Tolliver, Fox Co. (Character) - 1956
No Score Yet 59% Between Heaven and Hell Pvt. Willie Crawford (Character) - 1956
No Score Yet 67% Davy Crockett and the River Pirates George Russel (Character) - 1956
100% 77% Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier George Russel (Character) - 1955
86% 50% Night People Sgt. Eddie McColloch (Character) - 1954
No Score Yet 50% Red Garters Ginger Pete (Character) - 1954
No Score Yet No Score Yet Silver City Bonanza Gabriel "Gabe" Horne (Character) - 1951
No Score Yet No Score Yet Thunder in God's Country Happy Hooper (Character) - 1951
No Score Yet No Score Yet Rodeo King and the Senorita Muscles Benton (Character) - 1951
No Score Yet No Score Yet Utah Wagon Train "Snooper" Trent (Character) - 1951
No Score Yet No Score Yet Under Mexicali Stars Homer Oglethorpe (Character) - 1950
No Score Yet No Score Yet Sing Your Worries Away Tommy Jones (Character) - 1942
No Score Yet No Score Yet Parachute Battalion Jeff Hollis (Character) - 1941
No Score Yet No Score Yet They Met in Argentina Duke Ferrel (Character) - 1941
No Score Yet No Score Yet Four Girls in White Express (Character) - 1939
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Kid From Texas "Snifty" (Character) - 1939
No Score Yet No Score Yet Yellow Jack "Jellybeans" (Character) - 1938
No Score Yet 67% The Girl of the Golden West Alabama (Character) - 1938
100% 62% Broadway Melody of 1938 Peter Trot (Character) - 1937
No Score Yet 0% Banjo on My Knee Buddy (Character) - 1936
86% 76% Captain January Paul Roberts (Character) - 1936
No Score Yet 49% Born to Dance 'Mush' Tracy (Character) - 1936
90% 76% Broadway Melody of 1936 Ted Burke (Character) - 1935

TV

Credit
92% 96% The Twilight Zone Jimbo Cobb (Character) 2013
No Score Yet 77% King of the Hill Chet Elderson (Guest Voice) 1999
43% No Score Yet Burke's Law Louie Pike (Guest Star) 1994
No Score Yet No Score Yet Finder of Lost Loves Unknown (Guest Star) 1984
No Score Yet No Score Yet Barnaby Jones Barnaby Jones (Character) 1973-1980
No Score Yet No Score Yet Tattletales Guest 1977
No Score Yet No Score Yet Cannon Barnaby Jones (Guest Star) 1975
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Carol Burnett Show Guest 1975
No Score Yet No Score Yet Alias Smith and Jones Unknown (Guest Star) 1972
No Score Yet No Score Yet Bonanza Unknown (Guest Star) 1959 1972
No Score Yet No Score Yet Gunsmoke Drago (Guest Star) 1960-1961 1971
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Beverly Hillbillies Jed Clampett (Character) 1962-1971
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Danny Kaye Show Guest 1964-1965
No Score Yet No Score Yet Tales of Wells Fargo Lou Reese (Guest Star) 1960 1962
No Score Yet No Score Yet Rawhide Unknown (Guest Star) 1960 1962
No Score Yet No Score Yet Have Gun -- Will Travel Unknown (Guest Star) 1961
No Score Yet No Score Yet Bus Stop Unknown (Guest Star) 1961
No Score Yet 88% The Andy Griffith Show David Browne (Guest Star) 1961
No Score Yet No Score Yet Gunslinger Unknown (Guest Star) 1961
No Score Yet No Score Yet 77 Sunset Strip Baxter Kellogg (Guest Star) 1961
No Score Yet No Score Yet Marshal Dillon Unknown (Guest Star) 1960
No Score Yet No Score Yet Bronco Unknown (Guest Star) 1960
No Score Yet No Score Yet G.E. Theater Pa Jericho (Character) 1960
No Score Yet No Score Yet Johnny Ringo Unknown (Guest Star) 1960
No Score Yet No Score Yet Lock Up Unknown (Guest Star) 1960
No Score Yet No Score Yet Northwest Passage Sergeant Hunk Marriner (Character) 1958-1959
No Score Yet No Score Yet Climax! Unknown (Character) 1957
No Score Yet No Score Yet Screen Directors Playhouse Unknown (Character) 1956