What Ever Happened to the Cast of The Beverly Hillbillies?

Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett

Before he struck black gold as Jed Clampett, Buddy Ebsen got his start as a Broadway dancer in the early 1930s. He soon signed a contract with MGM, appearing in films opposite Shirley Temple and Judy Garland.

He was famously originally cast as the Scarecrow in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. But after swapping roles with Ray Bolger to play the Tin Man, Ebsen was made so sick by the aluminum dust in his silver makeup that he was forced to drop out of the film.

After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Ebsen returned to acting, landing numerous film and TV roles. One of his most famous came in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in which he played Doc Golightly, the estranged husband of Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly.

The Beverly Hillbillies premiered the following year, with Ebsen starring as Jed, a role he played in all nine seasons of the series. After the series ended, Ebsen took on guest roles in Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O and Bonanza, before starring as the titular detective in Barnaby Jones from 1973 to 1980. The following year, he reprised the role of Jed Clampett in the TV movie Return of the Beverly Hillbillies and also appeared as Barnaby Jones in the 1993 Beverly Hillbillies movie — his final film role. Ebsen’s final TV role came in 1999, when he voiced a character on the animated sitcom King of the Hill.

In addition to acting, Ebsen published four books and released three albums over the course of his career. He was thrice married, sharing two daughters with his first wife, Ruth Cambridge, as well as a son and four daughters with second wife Nancy Wolcott. Ebsen married his third wife, Dorothy Knott, in 1985. He died of respiratory failure in July 2003 at the age of 95.

Irene Ryan as Granny

Born in 1902, Irene Ryan’s long career took off in the 1920s when she appeared on the vaudeville stage as part of a double act with her first husband, Tim Ryan. The duo moved into radio and film in the 1930s, before divorcing in 1942. Irene continued to perform, touring with Bob Hope, but reunited with Tim to star in a string of films in the 1940s.

Irene married her second husband, Harold E. Knox, in 1946. The couple divorced in 1961.

Irene made her TV debut in a 1955 episode of The Danny Thomas Show, and continued to appear in recurring and guest roles on TV throughout the late ’50s and early ’60s.

In 1962, at the age of 60, she landed her best-known role playing Jed Clampett’s wizened but feisty mother-in-law Daisy May Moses, better known as “Granny,” in The Beverly Hillbillies. The performance earned her Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964. She also made a cameo as Granny in the 1966 film Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of a Title.

A year after The Beverly Hillbillies ended, Irene starred as Berthe in the original 1972 Broadway production of Pippin, directed by Bob Fosse. The role earned her a 1973 Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a musical. She was unable to attend the March 1973 ceremony, however. Earlier that month, during a performance of Pippin, Irene suffered a stroke. She died the following month at the age of 70.

Donna Douglas as Elly May Clampett

Model, actress, singer, children’s book author, and licensed real estate agent: Donna Douglas did it all.

Best known for her role as Elly May Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, Douglas’ early career as a model led to small roles on The Perry Como Show and The Steve Allen Show, as well as in films like Career (opposite Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine) and Lover Come Back (with Rock Hudson and Doris Day) in the late ’50s and early ’60s.

She married first husband Roland Bourgeois Jr. in 1951. The couple divorced in 1954, the same year Douglas’s only child, Danny Bourgeois, was born.

In 1960, she appeared in the all-time classic The Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder,” playing a traditionally gorgeous woman who (spoiler alert) happens to live in a world where everyone else has pig-like snouts.

Her only leading role in a film came in 1966, during The Beverly Hillbillies’ nine-season run, when she starred opposite Elvis Presley in Frankie and Johnny. She married Hillbillies director Robert M. Lee in 1971.

Following The Beverly Hillbillies’ cancelation that same year, Douglas briefly worked as a real estate agent before shifting her focus to music, performing gospel and country and later recording four albums between 1982 to 1989. She made a smattering of guest appearances on TV shows like Night Gallery and McMillan and Wife in the 1970s. In 1981, she reprised the role of Elly May alongside Buddy Ebsen and Nancy Kulp in Return of the Beverly Hillbillies. She and Lee divorced a year before the special’s premiere. Her final TV role came in 1999, when she appeared as herself on The Nanny.

Douglas was also active in the faith community, performing and speaking before church groups around the U.S., and publishing several Christian children’s books.

Douglas died at the age of 82 in January 2015.

Max Baer Jr. as Jethro Bodine

The son of world heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, Max Baer Jr.’s professional acting career began just two years prior to the premiere of The Beverly Hillbillies. From 1960 to 1962, he appeared in guest and recurring roles on TV shows, like Maverick, Cheyenne and Hawaiian Eye.

During The Beverly Hillbillies’ nine-season run, Baer Jr. starred as dim-witted Clampett cousin Jethro Bodine as well as making several appearances in drag as his character’s twin sister, Jethrine.

In 1967, he made his big screen debut in A Time for Killing and also appeared as a “Bachelor Judge” on the series Dream Girl of ’67.

Following Hillbillies’ cancelation, Baer Jr. moved into writing and producing, while also appearing in guest roles on Love, American Style and Fantasy Island in the 1970s. He made his directorial debut with 1975’s The Wild McCulloch, in which he also starred, followed by 1976’s Ode to Billy Joe and 1979’s Hometown U.S.A. During the 1980s, he appeared in a handful of TV movies and series, including two episodes of Murder, She Wrote. A 1991 episode of that series was his final acting role.

During the ’80s, Baer Jr. also began investing in the gambling and hotel industries, obtaining the rights to license the Beverly Hillbillies characters to appear on themed slot machines in 1991.

At 87 years old, he is the last surviving member of the Beverly Hillbillies cast. From 2003 to 2012, he was involved in the development of a Beverly Hillbillies-themed hotel and casino, but the project was ultimately suspended due to ongoing litigation.

Baer Jr. was married to Joanne Kathleen Hill from 1966 until their divorce in 1971. In 2008, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the then-70-year-old actor’s girlfriend, 30-year-old former Penthouse model Chere Rhodes, died by suicide at the couple’s Lake Tahoe home.

As of 2025, Baer Jr. is the only surviving member of The Beverly Hillbillies’ core cast.

Raymond Bailey as Milburn Drysdale

After an unsuccessful attempt to get into show business as a teenager in the early 1920s and a stint as a merchant seaman, Raymond Bailey found success appearing on Broadway and in small, often uncredited, roles in Hollywood films and movie serials, such asThe Green Hornet (1940) and Sabrina (1954). More substantial supporting and guest roles came in the mid-1950s, including in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and TV shows like Gunsmoke, The Donna Reed Show, The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In 1962, he landed his most well-known role as the Clampetts’ banker and next-door neighbor, Milburn Drysdale. Around the time of the show’s 1971 cancellation, Bailey began experiencing the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. He appeared in two further films, Disney’s Herbie Rides Again (1974) and The Strongest Man in the World (1975) before retiring.

Five years after his final film performance, Bailey died of a heart attack in 1980 at the age of 75. He was survived by his wife, Gaby Aida George.

Nancy Kulp as Jane Hathaway

Before becoming an actress, Nancy Kulp worked as a journalist in the 1940s and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II. Upon moving to Hollywood in the early 1950s to work in MGM’s publicity department, she was convinced to try performing. She had small roles in films like Sabrina (1954), A Star is Born (1954), The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and The Parent Trap (1961). During the ’50s and early ’60s, she also took guest roles on dozens of classic TV shows, including I Love Lucy, Perry Mason, Mr. Ed and My Three Sons.

Kulp’s role as banker Milton Drysdale’s long-suffering secretary, Jane Hathaway, in The Beverly Hillbillies earned her a 1967 Emmy nomination. She appeared as the character in a 1968 episode of Petticoat Junction and reprised the role in the 1981 TV movie Return of the Beverly Hillbillies.

Following the show’s cancellation, Kulp appeared in recurring and guest roles on shows like Sanford and Son, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Quantum Leap throughout the ’70s and ’80s. She also appeared on Broadway in the 1980 to 1981 production of Morning’s at Seven.

In 1984, she ran as the Democratic nominee to represent her home state of Pennsylvania’s 9th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her campaign furthered the rift between Kulp and Hillbillies co-star Buddy Ebsen, with whom she’d clashed over politics on set. Ebsen campaigned for Kulp’s Republican opponent, Bud Shuster, and she lost the election. Kulp later worked as an artist-in-residence and taught acting at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa.

Kulp was married to Charles M. Dacus from 1951 until their divorce 10 years later. But in an interview with LGBTQ activist Boze Hadleigh for his 1994 book Hollywood Lesbians, Kulp hinted that she was queer. “Here’s how I would ask it: ‘Do you think that opposites attract?’” she said. “My own reply would be that I’m the other sort — I find that birds of a feather flock together. That answers your question.”

Kulp died of cancer in 1991 at the age of 69.