Beverly Hillbilly Buddy Ebsen Dies

Buddy Ebsen, who starred in such TV series as The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones and such feature films as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Davy Crockett, died Sunday morning in Torrance, California. He was 95.

An announcement on Ebsen's official Web site notes the entertainer is "now among the immortals." The sentiment was echoed by Larry Borovay, who managed Ebsen's art career, "We just lost a great man," Borovay told E! Online Monday.

Reports suggest the veteran thesp died of complications from pneumonia, but doctors wouldn't confirm the cause of death, citing privacy restrictions.

Ebsen had been hospitalized at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center since last month for what Borovay said were lung problems. But just last week Ebsen was transferred from intensive care and was said to be making a solid recovery--his wife, Dorothy, even said she planning a post-hospital trip to Hawaii for the couple.

"Buddy had problems with his lungs, and there was a procedure done last week and it was successful at the time," explained Borovay. "That was when Dorothy [his wife] announced he had taken his first few steps, and they thought he was on the road to recovery. But I'm not sure if that was the final cause."

Despite an acting career that spanned seven decades, the Illinois-born Christian Rudolph Ebsen Jr. will probably be best remembered as that happy-go-lucky hillbilly Jed Clampett who struck bubbling crude and moved his dirt-poor clan to California in The Beverly Hillbillies.

By the time Ebsen took on the role of Jedidiah, he was already an established stage and screen actor who hit the Broadway boards as a song-and-dance man in the musicals Ziegfeld Follies and Flying Colors and starred in movies opposite Shirley Temple, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

His first screen kiss was with Barbara Stanwyck in 1937's Banjo on my Knee. A year later, he was picked to help escort Dorothy down the yellow-brick road as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, but he was forced to drop out after an allergic reaction to his metallic makeup. He was replaced by Jack Haley.

Still, Ebsen perservered in supporting roles, playing Fess Parker's sidekick George Russell in two Davy Crockett movies in the 1950s and Audrey Hepburn's husband, Doc Golightly, in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Ebsen's portrayal of country bumpkin Doc Golightly motivated producers to offer him the role on Hillbillies. The series debuted on CBS in 1962 and ran until 1971, making it one of the Eye network's longest running sitcoms.

During its first two seasons it reigned as the number one show, attracting an average 60 million viewers a week. In fact, a regular episode in January 1964 ranks as TV's 34th highest-rated telecast ever per Nielsen Media Research, outpointing several Super Bowls, the mega-miniseries The Thorn Birds and the finale episode of Seinfeld.

Next, Ebsen moved on to play soft-spoken Barnaby Jones, the titular P.I. of CBS' 1973-80 series who comes out of retirement to nail the bad guys.

"Buddy Ebsen was one of CBS's most beloved stars," Leslie Moonves, CBS chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "He was an enormously talented actor who had the rare ability to make a difficult craft look easy, and he personified the 'television star' who is welcome week after week in homes all over the nation....[W]e will miss him greatly."

In a twist, he played Jones in 1993's big-screen version of the Hillbillies starring Jim Varney as Jed Clampett.

In recent years Ebsen had dabbled in oil painting, selling self-portraits and paintings of Clampett characters, penned a novel (2001's Kelly's Quest) and recorded an album (Buddy's Originals).

Ebsen was married three times and had a total of seven children from his first two marriages. He's survived by his third wife Dorothy.