Buddy Ebsen passes away...

This is getting scary, I can’t think of another period of constant celebrity death like this in the history of running AICN. The Reaper just seems to be collecting constantly these days. This time he’s taking another American Icon… BUDDY EBSEN.

For the first part of his career, Buddy Ebsen had… what could only be imagined as being the most frustrating career ever. Sure he got to do “The Cod Fish Ball” with the supernaturally cute Shirley Temple in CAPTAIN JANUARY, but as wonderful as the scene is, it just didn’t live like her scene with Bojangles or her “Goodship Lollypop” number. The number did open some doors for him and 3 years later he landed the part of The Scarecrow in WIZARD OF OZ… ahhhhhh, immortality was in his grasp. His fantastic hoofing ability was set to shine! However, he decided to trade parts with Ray Bolger and play The Tin Man instead. Still a great part but a near fatal reaction to the Aluminum Powder base make-up required that the part be recast with Jack Haley and... well the rest is history

For the next 20 years, Buddy worked in small character parts, good work, but the sort in films that were often overlooked. In the early fifties he was the happy sidekick character for B-Western Movie star Rex Allen… While Rex Allen was nearly always playing… Rex Allen, Buddy was given character names like “Muscles” Benton, Happy Hooper, Gabe Horne, Snooper Trent, Homer Oglethorpe, but unfortunately more people knew the name of Rex Allen’s horse because… well he rode Koko The Wonder Horse, and Koko kicked ass and neighed names! However, Buddy again was doing good, but fairly thankless work.

Then… Walt Disney was set to give him his BIG BREAK. You see, Walt Disney was working up a series TV episodes called DAVY CROCKETT, KING OF THE WILD FRONTIER for his DISNEYLAND show and Walt wanted Buddy Ebsen to play… DAVY CROCKETT! Just about everything was set, when fate again intervened and while Walt Disney was being a good geek and watching THEM! He caught glimpse of a man born to play Davy… FESS PARKER! Feeling awful about giving away Buddy’s part, Buddy was given the part of “the faithful sidekick” George Russel. It seemed that Buddy was doomed to obscurity when the fickle finger of the Pop Culture Gods pointed at DAVY CROCKETT and declared it to be the biggest thing… like ever. And while he wasn’t the lead… the exposure was so great, so big that it instantly raised him out of obscurity and into the realm of “the known”.

Personally, I will forever think of Buddy Ebsen as George Russel. Last year when I introduced the film print of DAVY CROCKETT, KING OF THE WILD FRONTIER to my Saturday Morning Kids Club at the Alamo Drafthouse… looking out at that audience of Grandparents and their daughters and sons and their daughters and sons and sometimes their daughters and sons… I’ll never forget this little girl that came dressed in full Davy Crockett gear and during the trivia contest part of the screening, she sang the entire Ballad of Davy Crockett from memory at the age of 5 years old… and about 30 kids could all sing the first verse… Nearly 50 years later. And watching Buddy’s George… it’s iconic. Right there with Davy, pushing him forward… the feeling of desperation at the Alamo… When Buddy volunteers to ride to Goliad and Davy is glad he got away, only to be furious with him when he returns… and that look between the two of them… That look of two best friends, both wanting the other to live, neither willing to live in a world without each other… JUST THE BEST! As great as onscreen charisma between friends has ever gotten. Just Perfect!

As great as that work is though… it was destined to be overshadowed in Pop-culture’s eyes.

After DAVY CROCKETT mania – Ebsen had the break he needed. His acting and nuanced performance of George Russel took him to a better level of film work. He landed a wonderful supporting role in one of the absolute best World War II movies that too few know called ATTACK by Robert Aldrich. Putting him right in a hotbed of great acting by Lee Marvin, Richard Jaeckel, Eddie Albert and the astonishingly great Jack Palance.

Then he was cast as a pre-Clampett in the film that is definitely the most timeless work he belongs in… BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S as Audrey Hepburn’s husband. Of course… all the best lines went to Audrey and George Peppard, but again… he did wonderful work and was a part of something truly unforgettable. Ultimately it directly led to the part of a lifetime.

With these two parts… it seemed certain that Buddy was headed towards work as a great character actor in major motion pictures… when that fickle finger of fate pointed at him again. This time… there would be no aluminum powder… no last minute casting changes… no, “He’s too tall” problems of any kind. This was when he was cast as Jed Clampett in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. After that, a film career was pretty much impossible because he had found one of those roles so big, so perfect for him that 9 years on the show and for the rest of eternity Buddy Ebsen would be known as J.D., Jed or just THE Beverly Hillbilly. He got the role because of his character in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S and indeed it was a role so suited that it is his legacy.

Ebsen helped tailor the Jed Clampett role to be something more than just “a joke” – he wanted Jed to be the smartest character on the show, wanted his “horse sense” to outpace all the cityfolk’s book learning… and possibly paved the way of public acceptance to our current Pennsylvania Avenue Hillbilly show that’s playing on stations around the globe. The character of Jed Clampett gave a Jed-I-like sense of cool to southern patriarch types. He commanded a certain level of respect and no matter who was trying to fox him out of his money, he was always several steps ahead of the game.

Later, he became BARNABY JONES, but it was never as iconic as his work in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES.

Buddy Ebsen was definitely one of a kind.