Max Baer Jr. recalls last meeting with Buddy Ebsen, days before ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ co-star died
The TV comedy The Beverly Hillbillies followed the story of the Clampett family, starring Buddy Ebsen as new millionaire Jed Clampett. It became legendary, and today, there is only one member of the main cast that is still alive: Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro Bodine.
Max Baer Jr. had quite a remarkable career, especially considering how he got the part in Beverly Hillbillies. Today, he’s 84 years old, and after his acting career, he became a professional golfer.
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Baer was married to Joanne Hill from 1966 to 1971 but never had any children. Max never became a father – and in fact, there is an explanation for it. He never wanted to become a dad for one sad reason.
Max Baer Jr. was born December 4, 1937, in Oakland, California. He is the son of boxing legend Max Baer and Mary Ellen Sullivan.
Max Baer Jr. – early life and career
Besides being a celebrated star on The Beverly Hillbillies, Baer had a great interest in sports, just like his father. Unfortunately, Baer’s dad passed away in 1959, at age 50.
Baer didn’t become a boxer, but he played professional golf, participating in several tournaments in California. In 1968, Max Baer Jr. teamed up with professional golfer Charlie Sifford, with whom the actor won the pro-am division of the Andy Williams Golf Classic in San Diego.
“Acting, though, is really only a hobby with me,” Baer told The Times in 1971. “Golf is my occupation.”
But even though Baer thought of himself as a golf player foremost, he turned out to be a great actor.
This is the story of the man behind Jethro Bodine – a character people in Hollywood never wanted to let go of.
It wouldn’t be long before Baer made his debut as an actor. His first role was in a stage production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Blackpool Pavilion in England in 1949. Later, it was just a mixture of coincidence, luck, and a great self-confidence that landed him the role of a lifetime in The Beverly Hillbillies.
Baer was raised in Sacramento and later moved to Santa Clara, California. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Santa Clara University in 1959, but only a year later, he would find himself standing in a parking lot in Los Angeles.
Max Baer Jr. – ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’
According to a 1999 article in People Magazine, Max Baer Jr. decided to ride his motorcycle to Los Angeles the year after graduation. He ended up in the Warner Bros. lot, where an executive thought he looked like James Garner.
Baer was discovered, and he decided to give acting a chance. Soon after, he signed his first one-year contract, despite knowing nothing about acting — he just thought he might as well go for it.
He scored small parts and guest roles in television, appearing in television series such as 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, and Hawaiian Eye.
Even though his career wasn’t skyrocketing, he decided to stay in the business. Soon enough, he found himself the most significant gig he would ever land: a sitcom about a country bumpkin family getting rich off oil.
Following an open audition, he scored the role as Jethro Bodine in The Beverly Hillbillies, earning $1,000 for the pilot and $500 the following show.
“When you play a role like Jethro, it’s for other people to judge because it’s quite hard to be subjective or objective about yourself,” Baer told Medium.
Huge success – but no big salary
“You just do the best you can with the material that you’re given, and then you try to add to it [with your performance] as much as you possibly can. But in the end, it’s the audience who has the final say. Well, we liked what you did’ or ‘We don’t like what you did.’ And you really don’t have any other way of evaluating it.
The Beverly Hillbillies was a huge success, but Baer never earned more than $800 per episode, although he held a very special place in the hearts of the American public TV. Towards the end of the show, however, Baer and his co-stars earned about $4500 an episode.
Max Baer Jr. knew he was doing a good job and, most importantly, getting people to laugh.
“You have to perform well. And, in my case, if I have made the people laugh and even if they can laugh at my expense, it’s okay. I don’t care,” Baer said.
“They can laugh with me or at me. It doesn’t matter, just as long as they laugh. Because if I can make them laugh, then I believe that my performance was a successful one. I can’t evaluate it as to what degree of success it was. But I can say it did what it was supposed to do.”
Max Baer Jr. played the role of Jethro Bodine, the son of Jed’s cousin, Pearl, a naive and borderline dim-witted man who showed off his excellent math skills with his multiplication classic, “five gozinta five once, five gozinta ten twice.”
