Edgar Buchanan

 Edgar Buchanan (March 20, 1903 – April 4, 1979)

He was an actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s. As Uncle Joe, he took over as proprietor of the Shady Rest Hotel following the 1968 real-life death of Bea Benaderet, who had played Kate Bradley. In 1969, in the episode "Kathy Joe's First Birthday Party", he appeared with his real-life son, Buck (who had a cameo as an ice cream vendor). Buchanan appeared in more than 100 films, including Texas (1941) where he played a dentist and starred with William Holden and Glenn Ford and later in Penny Serenade (1941) with Cary Grant, Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942) with Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur, The Man from Colorado (1948), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), She Couldn't Say No (1954), Ride the High Country (1962) with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, McLintock! (1963) with John Wayne, Move Over, Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner, and Benji (1974). In 1956, Buchanan portrayed the lead in the 39-episode syndicated Western television series, Judge Roy Bean, set in Langtry, Texas, and filmed in color in California. Only loosely based on the career of the legendary storekeeper, bartender, and Justice of the Peace Roy Bean, the series had supporting roles for Jack Buetel, Jackie Loughery, and Russell Hayden, as a Texas Ranger. Buchanan died from a stroke complicated by pneumonia in Palm Desert, California, he was 76. He is interred at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.