Petticoat Junction (CBS) Sept. 24, 1963-Apr. 4, 1970 = 222 Episodes
The Complete Cast Information
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- Actress
- Soundtrack
Bea Benaderet had a remarkable career in radio and television. In the earlier days of radio, before television, she provided the voice for numerous names of characters on the radio, on shows like "Fibber McGee and Molly," "My Favorite Husband" with Lucille Ball & "The Jack Benny Show. She was born in New York City but raised in San Francisco and made her radio debut when she was 12 years young. After doing voice-overs and various roles, Orson Welles gave her a regular role on "Campbell Playhouse." Bea made a smooth move from radio to television as she was cast in the role as Blanche Morton in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950). It was because of her role as Blanche that she could not accept the part of Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy (1951), which was offered to her by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She also provided the voice for several Warner Brothers cartoons, usually for females (those Mel Blanc could not do), like Tweety's owner, "Granny". Later, she worked with Blanc again on one of the most famous cartoons, Tweetie Pie (1947). It was 1947's Academy Award winning animation short of the year, featuring "Tweety", (the yellow Canary) & "Sylvester, the Siamese Cat".Beatrice Benaderet
April 4, 1906 in New York City - October 13, 1968 (age 62) in Los Angeles, California (left lung carcinoma)
Kate Bradley (1963-1968)- Actor
- Soundtrack
At the age of seven, he and his family moved to Oregon. After studying at the University of Oregon, he followed in his father's footsteps and became a dentist, graduating from North Pacific Dental College. From 1929 to 1937, he practiced oral surgery in Eugene, Oregon. He then moved his practice to Altadena, CA. There he joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse, eventually giving up dentistry at the age of 36 to become an actor. He made his film debut in 1939. His chubby face and gravelly voice were featured in over 100 films, but he is perhaps best known for TV roles in Hopalong Cassidy (1952), Judge Roy Bean (1955), Petticoat Junction (1963), and Cade's County (1971).William Edgar Buchanan
March 20, 1903 in Humansville, Missouri - April 4, 1979 (age 76) in Palm Desert, California (stroke complicated by pneumonia)
Uncle Joe Carson (1963-1970)- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of veteran writer and TV producer Paul Henning and Ruth Henning, Linda originally studied to be a dancer before going into acting. After appearing in an uncredited role as one of the dancers in Bye Bye Birdie (1963), she landed the role of Betty Jo on Petticoat Junction (1963), on which she remained for its entire seven-year run -- and for which she is perhaps most famous. Following its cancellation, Linda made numerous appearances on episodic TV and game shows and performed in stage plays and musicals all across the U.S. Since the 1980's Ms. Henning has been a member of the California Artists Radio Theatre (CART) repertory troupe. Her most recent credits include Sliders (1995), in which she has appeared in the recurring role of Mrs. Mallory.Linda Kay Henning
September 16, 1944 in Los Angeles, California
Betty Jo Bradley (1963-1970)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Striking brunette Lori Saunders managed to capitalize on her sunny, daisy-fresh appeal during CBS-TV's famous 1960s "rural age," an era in which the network churned out a connected trio of bucolic hit shows -- The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Green Acres (1965). As the studious, slightly ditzy middle daughter, "Bobbie Jo Bradley," on the second show, her character would occasionally "visit" the other two shows. Once Petticoat Junction (1963) was canceled in 1970, Lori crossed over to The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) set, with a recurring part as Mr. Drysdale's secretary, Elizabeth "Betty" Gordon, in its very last season (1970-1971).
Born Linda Marie Hines on October 4, 1941, in Kansas City, Missouri, Lori studied for a time under acting coach Jeff Corey. Her professional career began at age 19, in 1960, with multiple episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952). She then dropped her real name in favor of the stage moniker, "Linda Saunders," and became a popular presence, pitching well over 100 commercial products on TV. She also earned a few "pretty girl" film parts, in such minor fare as The Girls on the Beach (1965), Mara of the Wilderness (1965), and the horror opus, Blood Bath (1966).
Finding occasional work on such established series as Burke's Law (1963), Lori finally hit pay dirt in 1965 when she was brought in to replace actress Pat Woodell on Petticoat Junction (1963) as one of the gorgeous Bradley daughters, when Woodell decided to leave to pursue a singing career. Lori changed her marquee name for the final time, in order to avoid confusion with the other "Linda" on the show -- Linda Henning. During the "Petticoat" run, Lori, Linda and Meredith MacRae had a brief career as a singing trio in which they billed themselves as "The Girls from Petticoat Junction." The trio occasionally sang on the show (as the "Hooterville Honeys"), and one available CD contains original songs ("If You Could Only Be Me," "Thirty Days Hath September") as well as established hits from other artists ("Up, Up and Away"). The girls booked a string of nightclubs and fairs, and also made a singing appearance on Johnny Carson's late night show.
Following her TV peak, Lori continued to find acting work elsewhere, on such shows as Daniel Boone (1964) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969), as well as an occasional TV pilot. She played sweet "Betsy McGuire" for 26 episodes on yet another countrified show, Dusty's Trail (1973), that co-starred Gilligan's Island (1964) star Bob Denver and F Troop (1965) star Forrest Tucker. By coincidence, the other female co-star on that series was none other than blonde Jeannine Riley, who played daughter "Billie Jo Bradley" on Petticoat Junction (1963), but deboarded the Cannonball just as Lori was boarding it in 1965.
An attempt to shake up her wholesome image with leading roles in minor film fare did not pan out. Head On (1971), A Day at the White House (1972), Frasier, the Sensuous Lion (1973) and the slasher film, So Sad About Gloria (1973), in which Lori played a former mental patient tormented by visions of ax murders, did little to advance her career. Lori eventually retired from acting, following her appearance in the low-budget sci-fi film, Captive (1980), co-starring Cameron Mitchell and David Ladd.
Married since 1961 to Bernard Sandler, who is retired as owner and agent of his Commercial Talent Agency, and living in Southern California, the couple have two children, Ronald Sandler and Stacy Sandler. Lori's long-time creative focus has been on photography, sculpture and painting. She is also a vegan and an avid outdoors person. She is into spiritual meditation and is involved in many charities as an advocate for child and animal rights.Linda Marie Hines
October 4, 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri
Bobbie Jo Bradley 2 (1965-1970)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Pat Woodell was born on 12 July 1944 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Roommates (1973), Petticoat Junction (1963) and The Big Doll House (1971). She was married to Robert Vern McDade and Gary Clarke. She died on 29 September 2015 in Fallbrook, California, USA.Patricia Joy Woodell
July 12, 1944 in Winthrop, Massachusetts - September 29, 2015 (age 71) in Fallbrook, California (cancer)
Bobbie Jo Bradley 1 (1963-1965)- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Meredith Lynn MacRae was born on May 30, 1944, in Houston, Texas. She was born on a military base where her father was stationed.
Meredith was bitten by the show business bug at an early age. Her father, Gordon MacRae was a singer and movie idol of the 1950s (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956)), and her mother, Sheila MacRae, is an actress/comedienne and author, who is probably best known as Alice Kramden (1966-1970), during the 2nd incarnation of Jackie Gleason's The Jackie Gleason Show (1966) (aka "The Honeymooners").
At the age of eight, Meredith started her own acting career and appeared in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), which starred her father.
She attended UCLA and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In 1964, she married Richard Berger, former president of MGM. They divorced four years later.
Meredith went on to starring roles in two of television's heyday family sitcoms: Petticoat Junction (1963) and My Three Sons (1960). She also guest starred in many other television shows including: Fantasy Island (1977), Magnum, P.I. (1980), The Rockford Files (1974), and Webster (1983) (the highest rated episode ever). She also appeared in several movies and had a brief singing career.
In 1969, Meredith married actor Greg Mullavey (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973). They had one daughter, Allison, born in 1974. Greg and Meredith divorced in 1992 but remained friends.
In 1995, Meredith married Philip Neal, Chairman and CEO of Avery-Dennison.
In 1999, she was diagnosed with cancer. In 2000, due to complications from multiple surgeries and allergic reactions to medications (which caused her brain to swell), Meredith Lynn MacRae departed this life.Meredith Lynn MacRae
May 30, 1944 in Houston, Texas - July 14, 2000 (age 56) in Manhattan Beach, California (complications from brain cancer)
Billie Jo Bradley 3 (1966-1970)- Gunilla Hutton was born on 15 May 1944 in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden. She is an actress, known for Fantasy Island (1977), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Burke's Law (1963).Gunilla Freeman
May 15, 1944 in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden
Billie Jo Bradley 2 (1965-1966) - Actress
- Soundtrack
Blonde bombshell Jeannine Brooke Riley was born in Madera, California on October 1, 1940 and started her movie and TV career in 1962 with an unbilled movie part in the Rosalind Russell drama Five Finger Exercise (1962) and roles on the TV shows "Father of the Bride" and "Route 66," not to mention an episode of "My Three Sons" aptly entitled "The Beauty Contest." The next year she co-starred with Gary Clarke and Steve Ihnat in the low-budget suspense drama Strike Me Deadly (1963); later that year she and Ihnat also appeared together in the stage play "The Fourposter."
While showing off her allure in western series "Wagon Train" and "The Virginian," Jeannine came to the attention of CBS producers who were on a TV rural roll with the huge series hits "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies". At the time, Hillbilly cast member Bea Benaderet (as Cousin Pearl) had just been given the green light to star in her own bucolic series, Petticoat Junction (1963), playing Kate Bradley, a hotel-owning widowed mother of three beautiful nubile daughters. The flirty role of daughter Billie Jo Bradley was at first given to actress Sharon Tate, but when word came out that she had posed nude in photo shoots, they were forced to dismiss her from the wholesome Ivory-Soap-sponsored series before scandal and controversy could cause damage. The part was recast and Jeannine won the role.
The actress was ideal as the Daisy Mae-like eldest daughter who attracted men like bees to honey, much to the envy of her impressionable younger sisters. Jeannine played the role for two years before both she and Pat Woodell (as sister Bobbie Jo) opted out of the series. While Jeannine wanted to move into film work, Woodell, who went on to marry and divorce Gary Clarke, Jeannine's film co-star in Strike Me Deadly (1963), desired a singing career. Jeannine and Pat were replaced in 1965 by Gunilla Hutton and Lori Saunders.
While the actress continued on with TV guest roles on "Ozzie and Harriet," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," and "Occasional Wife," and as a on "The sometimes-sexy foil on "The Smothers Brothers Show," she found breaking away from her bombshell trappings too difficult and was soon appearing as sexpot Bambi Berman in the Jerry Lewis film vehicle The Big Mouth (1967), and in unsold pilots of Sheriff Who (1967) and Li'l Abner (1967); in this latter she finally got to play the voluptuous Daisy Mae character. Guest episodes of "The Wild, Wild West" and "Gomer Pyle" also showed a return to familiar territory.
After starring with Nick Adams in one of his last films before his untimely death, the action drama Fever Heat (1968), Jeannine showed up in her first quality film showcase, albeit a smaller part, with The Comic (1969), a moving showcase for nimble Dick Van Dyke as a silent screen star. She found an even better role as dancer/barmaid babe Jolene opposite biker Robert Blake in the cult film Electra Glide in Blue (1973), sharing some potent nude scenes.
Back in the country fold on series TV, she appeared in two seasons of the cornpone musical variety show Hee Haw (1969), in which she was featured as a Daisy Mae-like foil in silly skits. A couple years later she was cast in the "Gilligan's Island"-inspired TV western Dusty's Trail (1973) with Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker co-starring as Gilligan/Skipper-like characters; Jeannine's Lulu McQueen was a dead-on take on the pneumatic Ginger Grant role. Petticoat Junction (1963) co-star Lori Saunders co-starred in the series as innocent Betsy McGuire, a variation of the Mary Ann character. It lasted one season.
Since then, however, the availability of parts has sharply declined; Jeannine's last credits were the films Lone Star Bar & Grill (1983) and Timebomb (1991).Jeannine Brooke Riley
October 1, 1940 in Madera, California
Billie Jo Bradley 1 (1963-1965)- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
The son of television producer Don Fedderson, Mike Minor was raised in San Francisco and educated at the University High School in Los Angeles and Brown Military Academy in San Diego. At 14, Mike was taking voice lessons when he got his first professional singing gig at the "Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills". Mike's early TV work began with guest appearances on such shows as The Donald O'Connor Show (1954) and The Joey Bishop Show (1961). Mike Minor is best recognized as "Steve Elliott" on Petticoat Junction (1963). Mike married actress Linda Henning in 1968, who co-starred on Petticoat Junction (1963) as "Betty Jo". The marriage lasted for five years. Mike has been on a number of TV soaps including As the World Turns (1956) and All My Children (1970), and Another World (1964) as "Dr. Royal Dunning". In 1999, Mike began performing on Broadway at the Duffy Theatre, starring as Inspector James Ascher in "A Perfect Crime".Michael Tone Fedderson
December 7, 1940 in San Francisco, California - January 28, 2016 (age 75) in New York City (cancer)
Steve Elliott (1966-1970)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Although Frank Cady's most famous role would be that of general-store owner Sam Drucker, one of the less nutty residents of Hooterville in both Green Acres (1965) and Petticoat Junction (1963), he had a history as a film, stage and television actor long before those shows. Cady also appeared on some radio programs including Gunsmoke. In the 1950s, Cady played Doc Williams in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), along with numerous supporting parts in movies and also appeared in television commercials for (among other products) Shasta Grape Soda. Cady has been most prolific in television and was the only actor to play a recurring character on three TV sitcoms at the same time, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Green Acres (1965), and Petticoat Junction (1963). Usually cast as a gregarious small-town businessman, druggist, store clerk or other type of all-around Midwestern-type good guy, Cady was actually a California native, born in Susanville in 1915. The acting bug bit him when he sang in an elementary school play, and after graduating from Stanford University he headed to London, England, to train in the theater. When World War II broke out he was already in Europe, so he enlisted in the Army Air Force and spent the next several years in postings all over the continent. After his discharge he returned to the US and headed for Hollywood. An agent saw him in a local play, signed him, and he was on his way. One of his earlier--and more atypical--roles was as a seedy underworld character pulled in for questioning in a cop's murder in the noir classic He Walked by Night (1948), and he played a succession of hotel clerks, bureaucrats, henpecked husbands and the like for the next 40+ years. He did much television work from the mid-'50s onward. Cady resided in Wilsonville, Oregon and at the time of his death had two children; daughter, Catherine Turk; son, Steven; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.Frank Randolph Cady
September 8, 1915 in Susanville, California - June 8, 2012 (age 96) in Wilsonville, Oregon
Sam Drucker (1963-1970)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Perhaps best remembered today for the '60s sitcom Petticoat Junction (1963), Rufe Davis had a long and varied career in show business, winding from an Oklahoma farm to the bright lights of New York and ultimately to Hollywood, including stops around the world.
Rufus Eldon Davidson was born in Vinson, Oklahoma on December 2, 1908, one of twelve children. He began imitating animal sounds at a young age and proved himself to be a natural mimic. Although he was a fullback on the Mangum High football team, Rufus was more interested in practicing his imitations than schoolwork or sports and he dropped out in the tenth grade. Mimicry would become his trademark; he later claimed to be able to imitate over 200 different sounds, though he regretted that he never mastered the sound of a piano. As an adult, he carried a tape recorder with him so that he could record various noises and perfect his repertoire.
After teaching himself some basic guitar chords, he won $5 in a local talent contest. Inspired by the possibility of life as a performer rather than a cotton farmer, he left home to try his hand at show business. Initially compelled to pick up farm work in Kansas, he continued to perform at every chance until he impressed the manager of a tent show and earned himself a $15 a-week-gig (roughly $280 today.) Adopting the stage name Rufe Davis, he toured with such vaudeville groups as Weaver Brothers and Elviry and The Radio Rubes and eventually landed in New York, performing with Xavier Cugat, and at numerous theatres and nightclubs. In the 1930s, he was active on the famed radio broadcast National Barn Dance, where his fellow players included future Petticoat Junction (1963) colleagues Smiley Burnette, Pat Buttram, and Curt Massey.
He made his big-screen debut in the Warner Brothers' short The City's Slicker (1936), playing a hillbilly mimic pursuing stardom in the big city. Paramount signed him to a film contract in 1937 after one of their talent scouts caught his performance in New York's aptly-named Hollywood Restaurant. Following eight films in three years for Paramount, Rufe signed with Republic in 1940 and was immediately cast in their "Three Mesquiteers" series as Lullaby Joslin, a role he would play for a total of fourteen films.
It was during a USO tour of the South Pacific after WWII that he first met Gene Autry, who invited him to appear in his touring company and The Strawberry Roan (1948). He recorded several songs during this time, the most well-known being "The Sow Song," "I'm The Sound Effects Man," and "Mama Don't Allow It." While Rufe continued to make films throughout the 1940s, his stock-in-trade remained the live show. He made repeated tours with the Autry group (which often included Burnette and Buttram) in addition to his individual performances, which blended music, imitations and down-home country humor. That solo work sustained him for over a decade as he criss-crossed the country maintaining an ambitious schedule; he estimated that in 1962, he put over 75,000 miles on his car, in addition to his considerable rail and bus travel.
Reunited again with old pal Smiley Burnette on Petticoat Junction in 1963, Rufe provided comic relief as Floyd Smoot, fireman and conductor of the Hooterville Cannonball. Occasionally the show would display Rufe's mimicry and musical skills. Smiley penned the song "Steam, Cinders, and Smoke," which the duo performed on the show and released as a single in 1964. Rufe and Smiley spent much of their time off from the show traveling the country, entertaining audiences as their Hooterville characters - and fishing as time allowed. In 1966, the two even became neighbors when Rufe took the apartment next door to Smiley, in a building within walking distance to the studio. Their personal and professional collaboration continued right up until Smiley's death in 1967, one day before the pair was scheduled to perform at LA's Shrine Auditorium.
Rufe left Petticoat Junction the following year when producers refused his request for a guaranteed number of episodes, though he did return to the show twice in 1970. In his final appearance, Last Train to Pixley (1970), he sang a shortened version of "Steam, Cinders, and Smoke," perhaps a bittersweet tribute to his late friend. Off-screen he kept up a steady touring schedule, with a particular fondness for country fairs and children's hospitals.
Married to former ballerina Hermoine Hawkinson from 1940 to 1956, Rufe was the father of four children: Susan, James, Richard, and Vivian. In 1969, he married Nettie Jane Scott Nettie Scott, the wardrobe mistress on Petticoat Junction. The couple soon embarked on a cross-country trip in their camper so that Rufe could continue his personal appearances. He suffered a heart attack in the fall of 1974 and later underwent open-heart surgery. Rufus Davidson died on December 13, 1974, eleven days after his sixty-sixth birthday. He is interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, where Nettie joined him in 1999.Rufus Davidson
December 2, 1908 in Vinson, Oklahoma - December 13, 1974 (age 66) in Torrance, California
Floyd Smoot (1963-1968)- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Smiley worked on a local radio station and in Vaudeville after high school. Always interested in music, he was friends with Gene Autry and worked with him on the radio show "The National Barn Dance". When Westerns became a big draw with sound, the studios were always on the lookout for singing cowboys. In 1934, both Gene and Smiley made their debuts in In Old Santa Fe (1934). Smiley became well known as Gene's plump sidekick Frog Milhouse, and they worked together in over 80 Westerns. After Gene, Smiley provided the comic relief for other cowboy stars at Republic such as Sunset Carson and Charles Starrett (The Durango Kid). He also provided a lot of the music as he wrote over 300 western songs and sang quite a few in the films. Smiley was the first supporting actor to regularly appear on the Top Ten Western money-maker list. He became well known for his white horse with the black circle around one eye. When he used a team of white horses, as when he was 'Spec Specialist' Smiley Burnette, each white horse had one black circle around one eye. When the 'B' movie Western reign ended in 1953, Smiley retired from the screen. He made occasional appearances on television including being a regular on the music show "Ozark Jubilee (1959)". His last performance was as railroad engineer Charlie Pratt on Petticoat Junction (1963) from 1963-67.Lester Alvin Burnette
March 18, 1911 in Summum, Illinois - February 16, 1967 (age 55) in Encino, Los Angeles, California (leukemia)
Charley Pratt (1963-1967)- The real name of the dog who played the original "Benji" was Higgins, owned and trained by famed animal trainer and breeder Frank Inn. Inn adopted the dog in 1960 from the Burbank Animal Shelter in Burbank, California. He trained the dog, who went on to appear in the television series Petticoat Junction (1963). Soon after the series ended, Higgins was retired by Inn but returned at age 14 in 1974 to star in his greatest success in Benji (1974). Descendants of Higgins were featured in the subsequent "Benji" films.December 12, 1957 - November 11, 1975 (age 17) in Los Angeles, California
Dog (1964-1970) - Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in New York City on June 25, 1925, the daughter of actors Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart, June Lockhart made her professional debut at age eight in a Metropolitan Opera production of "Peter Ibbetson", playing Mimsey in the dream sequence. In the mid-1930s, the Lockharts relocated to California, where father Gene enjoyed a long career as one of the screen's great character actors. June made her screen debut in MGM's version of A Christmas Carol (1938), playing--appropriately enough the daughter of stars Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart. June appeared in a dozen or more movies before 1947, when she made her Broadway bow playing the ingénue in the comedy "For Love or Money" with John Loder. She got a standing ovation on opening night; one critic compared her debut to the first big hits of Helen Hayes and Margaret Sullavan. The overnight toast of Broadway, she went on to win a Tony Award, the Donaldson Award, the Theatre World Award and the Associated Press citation for Woman of the Year for Drama for her work in that play. On television, she has co-starred in popular series like Lassie (1954) and Lost in Space (1965).June 25, 1925 in New York City
Dr. Janet Craig (1968-1970)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Mean, miserly and miserable-looking, they didn't come packaged with a more annoying and irksome bow than Charles Lane. Glimpsing even a bent smile from this unending sourpuss was extremely rare, unless one perhaps caught him in a moment of insidious glee after carrying out one of his many nefarious schemes. Certainly not a man's man on film or TV by any stretch, Lane was a character's character. An omnipresent face in hundreds of movies and TV sitcoms, the scrawny, scowling, beady-eyed, beak-nosed killjoy who usually could be found peering disdainfully over a pair of specs, brought out many a comic moment simply by dampening the spirit of his nemesis. Whether a Grinch-like rent collector, IRS agent, judge, doctor, salesman, reporter, inspector or neighbor from hell, Lane made a comfortable acting niche for himself making life wretched for someone somewhere.
He was born Charles Gerstle Levison on January 26, 1905 in San Francisco and was actually one of the last survivors of that city's famous 1906 earthquake. He started out his working-class existence selling insurance but that soon changed. After dabbling here and there in various theatre shows, he was prodded by a friend, director Irving Pichel, to consider acting as a profession. In 1928 he joined the Pasadena Playhouse company, which, at the time, had built up a solid reputation for training stage actors for the cinema. While there he performed in scores of classical and contemporary plays. He made his film debut anonymously as a hotel clerk in Smart Money (1931) starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney and was one of the first to join the Screen Actor's Guild. He typically performed many of his early atmospheric roles without screen credit and at a cost of $35 per day, but he always managed to seize the moment with whatever brief bit he happened to be in. People always remembered that face and raspy drone of a voice. He appeared in so many pictures (in 1933 alone he made 23 films!), that he would occasionally go out and treat himself to a movie only to find himself on screen, forgetting completely that he had done a role in the film. By 1947 the popular character actor was making $750 a week.
Among his scores of cookie-cutter crank roles, Lane was in top form as the stage manager in Twentieth Century (1934); the Internal Revenue Service agent in You Can't Take It with You (1938); the newsman in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); the rent collector in It's a Wonderful Life (1946); the recurring role of Doc Jed Prouty, in the "Ellery Queen" film series of the 1940s, and as the draft board driver in No Time for Sergeants (1958). A minor mainstay for Frank Capra, the famed director utilized the actor's services for nine of his finest films, including a few of the aforementioned plus Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and State of the Union (1948).
Lane's career was interrupted for a time serving in the Coast Guard during WWII. In post-war years, he found TV quite welcoming, settling there as well for well over four decades. Practically every week during the 1950s and 1960s, one could find him displaying somewhere his patented "slow burn" on a popular sitcom - Topper (1953), The Real McCoys (1957), The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), Mister Ed (1961), Bewitched (1964), Get Smart (1965), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), The Munsters (1964), Green Acres (1965), The Flying Nun (1967) and Maude (1972). He hassled the best sitcom stars of the day, notably Lucille Ball (an old friend from the RKO days with whom he worked multiple times), Andy Griffith and Danny Thomas. Recurring roles on Dennis the Menace (1959), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Soap (1977) made him just as familiar to young and old alike. Tops on the list had to be his crusty railroad exec Homer Bedloe who periodically caused bucolic bedlam with his nefarious schemes to shut down the Hooterville Cannonball on Petticoat Junction (1963). He could also play it straightforward and serious as demonstrated by his work in The Twilight Zone (1959), Perry Mason (1957), Little House on the Prairie (1974) and L.A. Law (1986).
A benevolent gent in real life, Lane was seen less and less as time went by. One memorable role in his twilight years was as the rueful child pediatrician who chose to overlook the warning signs of child abuse in the excellent TV movie Sybil (1976). One of Lane's last on-screen roles was in the TV-movie remake of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1995) at age 90. Just before his death he was working on a documentary on his long career entitled "You Know the Face".
Cinematically speaking, perhaps the good ones do die young, for the irascible Lane lived to be 102 years old. He died peacefully at his Brentwood, California home, outliving his wife of 71 years, former actress Ruth Covell, who died in 2002. A daughter, a son and a granddaughter all survived him.Charles Gerstle Levison
January 26, 1905 in San Francisco, California - July 9, 2007 (age 102) in Santa Monica, California
*Homer Bedloe (1963-1968)- One of those wonderfully busy character actors whose face is familiar if not his name, mild-mannered actor Byron Foulger began performing with community theater, and stock and repertory companies after graduating from the University of Utah. He met his future wife, character actress Dorothy Adams, in one of these companies. The marriage lasted nearly five decades and ended only with his death.
Making his Broadway debut in a 1920 production of "Medea" that featured Moroni Olsen as Jason (of the Argonauts), and went on to appear in several other Olsen Broadway productions and in close succession (including "The Trial of Joan of Arc," "Mr. Faust" and "Candida"). While touring the country with Olsen's stock company, he ended up at the Pasadena Playhouse where he both acted and directed. Thereafter he and wife Dorothy decided to settle in Los Angeles.
Together the acting couple tried to stake a claim for themselves in 30s and 40s Hollywood films. Both succeeded, appearing in hundreds of film parts, both together and apart, albeit in small and often unbilled bits. A man of meek, nervous countenance, Foulger's short stature and squinty stare could be used for playing both humble and shady fellows. In the 1940s, the actor became a part of Preston Sturges' company of players, appearing in five of his classic films -- The Great McGinty (1940), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) and The Great Moment (1944).
Although predominantly employed as an owlish storekeeper, mortician, professor, or bank teller, his better parts had darker intentions. He was exceptional as weaselly, mealy-mouthed, whining henchmen who inevitably showed their yellow streak by the film's end.
The character actor eased into TV roles in the 1950s and '60s, displaying a comedy side in many folksy, rural sitcoms. His final regular TV role was as train conductor Wendell Gibbs in the final years of the Petticoat Junction (1963) series. The father of actress Rachel Ames, Foulger died of a heart ailment on April 4, 1970, coincidentally the same day the final new episode of Petticoat Junction (1963) was broadcast. .Byron Kay Foulger
August 27, 1899 in Ogden, Utah - April 4, 1970 (age 70) in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California (heart condition)
*Wendell Gibbs (1968-1969) - Actress
- Soundtrack
Elvia Allman was born on 19 September 1904 in Enochville, North Carolina, USA. She was an actress, known for Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), The Nutty Professor (1963) and Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977). She was married to Jerome Laveck Bayler, Charles ("C.C.") Pyle and Wesley Benton Tourtellotte. She died on 6 March 1992 in Santa Monica, California, USA.Elvia Beatrice Allman
September 19, 1904 in Enochville, North Carolina - March 6, 1992 (age 87) in Santa Monica, California (pneumonia)
*Selma Plout 2 (1965-1970)- Virginia Sale was born on 20 May 1899 in Urbana, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Topper (1937), Registered Nurse (1934) and I Like It That Way (1934). She was married to Sam Wren. She died on 23 August 1992 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.May 20, 1899 in Urbana, Illinois - August 23, 1992 (age 93) in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California (heart failure)
*Selma Plout 1 (1963-1965)