Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan (March 20, 1903 – April 4, 1979) was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s. As Uncle Joe, he took over as proprietor of the Shady Rest Hotel following the death of Bea Benaderet, who had played Kate Bradley.
Early life
Edgar Buchanan was born to Rose (Kee) Buchanan and William Edgar Buchanan Sr., DDS in Humansville, Missouri. He moved with his family to Oregon when he was seven. His father had a dental practice in Eugene, Oregon, and encouraged his son to follow suit. Buchanan Senior did not approve of his son's acting ambitions and pushed him to pursue dentistry instead. According to authors Arden and Joan Christen, Edgar's father believed "to choose a career in the theater was to settle for a life of mediocrity and uncertainty". Nevertheless, Edgar took courses in theater at the University of Oregon as a pre-med student, and was part of a Portland acting troupe in graduate school. He was also involved in the founding of the Portland Civic Theatre.
In 1928, Edgar earned his DDS degree from North Pacific College School of Dentistry in Portland, Oregon, which later became Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry. During his time there, he met his future wife, Mildred "Millie" Spence (1907–1987). They married in 1928 - the same year they both graduated with dental degrees. The couple adopted a son and named him William Edgar "Buck" Buchanan III.
Big changes came in 1939 when the family of three relocated their dental practice from Eugene, Oregon, to Altadena, California. There, Edgar joined the Pasadena Playhouse as an actor. Studio scouts spotted him performing at the playhouse and signed him into a seven-year deal in Hollywood. That same year, he appeared in his first film at age 36, and he left dentistry for good. Meanwhile, his wife, Dr. Millie Buchanan, DDS, took over the dental practice while also supporting her husband's new career as his talent manager.
Career
Buchanan appeared in more than 100 films, including Texas (1941), in which he played a dentist and appeared with William Holden and Glenn Ford and later in Penny Serenade (1941) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942) with Ronald Colman, Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, The Man from Colorado (1948), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), Shane (1953), 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).
Death
Buchanan died from a stroke complicated by pneumonia in Palm Desert, California in 1979. He was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. CLR
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Filmography (155 Appearances)
The History of Hooterville
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Benji
The Marshal of Madrid
Sam Cade
Cade's County
Yuma
The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again
The Partridge Family
The Over the Hill Gang
Angel in My Pocket
Something for a Lonely Man
The Mod Squad
Welcome to Hard Times
Gunpoint
Green Acres
The Man from Button Willow
The Rounders
Move Over, Darling
McLintock!
Petticoat Junction
A Ticklish Affair
Vacation Playhouse
Donovan's Reef
Flashing Spikes
The Merv Griffin Show
Stoney Burke
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Lloyd Bridges Show
Ride the High Country
The Comancheros
Bus Stop
Dr. Kildare
Devil's Partner
Tammy Tell Me True
Chartroose Caboose
Cimarron
Bringing Up Buddy
Route 66
Stagecoach West
The Andy Griffith Show
Outlaws
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
National Velvet
Thriller
The Tall Man
Four Fast Guns
Stump Run
Hound-Dog Man
Edge of Eternity
The Twilight Zone
Laramie
Riverboat
Bonanza
It Started with a Kiss
King of the Wild Stallions
Bat Masterson
The Rifleman
Bronco
Wanted: Dead or Alive
The Sheepman
Day of the Badman
26 Men
Trackdown
Leave It to Beaver
The Californians
The Restless Gun
Maverick
Perry Mason
Wagon Train
Have Gun, Will Travel
Spoilers of the Forest
The Gale Storm Show
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
Come Next Spring
The Brush Roper
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Gunsmoke
Judge Roy Bean
Wichita
The Lonesome Trail
The Silver Star
Rage at Dawn
The Millionaire
Destry
Climax!
Dawn at Socorro
Human Desire
Make Haste to Live
She Couldn't Say No
The Danny Thomas Show
Shane
It Happens Every Thursday
General Electric Theater
Toughest Man in Arizona
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Ford Television Theatre
Cavalcade of America
Hopalong Cassidy
Wild Stallion
The Big Trees
Flaming Feather
Silver City
Cave of Outlaws
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Rawhide
The Great Missouri Raid
Devil's Doorway
The Big Hangover
Cargo to Capetown
Cheaper by the Dozen
Any Number Can Play
Lust for Gold
Red Canyon
The Walking Hills
Studio One
The Untamed Breed
The Man from Colorado
Coroner Creek
Best Man Wins
Adventures in Silverado
The Black Arrow
The Wreck of the Hesperus
The Swordsman
Framed
The Sea of Grass
If I'm Lucky
Renegades
The Walls Came Tumbling Down
Perilous Holiday
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
Abilene Town
The Fighting Guardsman
Strange Affair
The Impatient Years
Bride by Mistake
Buffalo Bill
Destroyer
Good Luck, Mr. Yates
The Desperadoes
City Without Men
The Talk of the Town
Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die
You Belong to Me
Texas
The Richest Man in Town
Her First Beau
Penny Serenade
Arizona
When the Daltons Rode
The Sea Hawk
Escape to Glory
Tear Gas Squad
Too Many Husbands
My Son Is Guilty