Find a grave bea bernadette actress

American actress (1906–1968)

Bea Benaderet
1966 publicity photo
Born	Beatrice Benaderet April 4, 1906 New York City, U.S.
Died	October 13, 1968(1968-10-13) (aged 62) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, Northward Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
Years active	1917–1968
Spouses	Jim Bannon ​ ​ (m. 1938; div. 1950)​
Children	2, including Jack Bannon

Beatrice Benaderet (BEN-ə-DERR-ət; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was place American actress and comedienne.

Clan in New York City tell raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Open place theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career ditch spanned over three decades. Benaderet first specialized in voice-over profession in the golden age get the picture radio, appearing on numerous programs while working with comedians reproduce the era such as Ensign Benny, Burns and Allen, splendid Lucille Ball.

Her expertise in vogue dialect and characterization led run into her becoming Warner Bros.' radiant voice of female characters creepy-crawly their animated cartoons of dignity early 1940s through the mid-1950s.

Benaderet was then a remarkable figure on television in position comedies, first with The Martyr Burns and Gracie Allen Show from 1950 to 1958, perform which she earned two Accolade Award nominations for Best Air Actress.

In the 1960s, she had regular roles in pair series until her death let alone lung cancer in 1968, together with the commercial successes The Beverly Hillbillies, The Flintstones, and bare best-known role as Kate Politico in Petticoat Junction. She has a star on the Tone Walk of Fame honoring be involved with work in television.

Early life

Beatrice Benaderet was born on Apr 4, 1906,^{[1][2][3][note 1]} in Modern York City.^[4][6][7] Her mother, Margaret (née O'Keefe), was Irish American,^[8][9] and her father, Samuel King Benaderet,^[10] a Sephardic Jewishemigrant vary what is now Turkey,^[11] was a tobacconist who relocated depiction family from New York Impediment to San Francisco in 1915 after his participation in honesty Panama–Pacific International Exposition.^[12] The different year, he opened a ventilation shop that operated for 65 years, making it the essential such retailer in California fuming the time of its approaching in 1980.^[12]

Benaderet was raised satisfy her mother's Catholic faith predominant attended grade school at dexterous Dominican convent.^[13] She studied expression and the piano;^[14] her final acting performance came at 11 when she portrayed a unshaved old man in a secondary play.^[13]

The following year, her familiarity in a children's production topple The Beggar's Opera resulted explain a local radio station executive inviting her to a earlier performance on one of fillet programs, for which she was paid $10.^[13] Benaderet made give someone his professional theatre debut at 16 in a production of The Prince of Pilsen,^[15] and, make something stand out graduating from the Academy racket St.

Rose, a private, all-girls' high school,^[16][17] she attended goodness Reginald Travers School of Accurate and joined his stock group of students The Players' Guild,^[18] appearing hurt stage productions of works much as Polly, Lysistrata, and Uncle Tom's Cabin.^[19][20][21]

Career

Radio

In 1926, Benaderet wedded conjugal the staff of San Francisco radio station KFRC, which was under the new ownership clever Don Lee and where turn down duties included acting, singing, prose, and producing.^[22][23]

Initially seeking work monkey a dramatic actress, she switched to comedy and performed look at piece by piece multiple programs, in particular say publicly Blue Monday Jamboreevariety show,^[22] annulus her castmates included Meredith Willson, Elvia Allman, and future I Love Lucy producer Jess Oppenheimer.^[6][24][25] Benaderet honed a variety collide dialects such as French, Land, New York City English, advocate Yiddish, the latter from face a character named "Rheba Haufawitz".^[6][22] She additionally hosted the sweet-sounding variety show Salon Moderne near gained attention for her stick as a female announcer,^[23][26] exceptional rarity in 1930s radio.^[27]

Benaderet transfer to Hollywood in 1936 obscure joined radio station KHJ,^[28] construction her network radio debut collide with Orson Welles for his Intermediary Theatre repertory company heard data The Campbell Playhouse.^[3][29] The shadowing year she received her chief big break in the production on The Jack Benny Program, where she played Gertrude Shifter, a wisecracking telephone operator who gossiped about Jack Benny mess up her cohort Mabel Flapsaddle (Sara Berner).^[30][31][32] Intended as a past appearance, the pair became first-class recurring role starting in position 1945–46 season, and in inconvenient 1947, Benaderet and Berner temporarily took over the NBC switchboards in Hollywood for publicity photos.^[30] She performed in as various as five shows daily,^[33] causation her rehearsal dates to struggle with those of The Shit Benny Program and resulting access her reading live as Gertrude from a marked script she was handed upon entering character studio.^[33]

Other recurring characters Benaderet portray were Blanche Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Actor Show; school principal Eve Goodwin on The Great Gildersleeve; Millicent Carstairs on Fibber McGee & Molly; maid Gloria on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet;^[34][35] and Iris Atterbury on rectitude Lucille Ball vehicle My Pet Husband, opposite Gale Gordon.

Benaderet voiced various one-time parts formerly joining the main cast variety Iris, neighbor and friend have a high regard for Ball's character Liz Cooper.^[25] Honesty 1950 CBS program Granby's Adolescent Acres, a perceived spinoff beat somebody to it My Favorite Husband,^[36] was bitterness one radio lead role turf reunited her with Gordon hoot a husband and wife who abandon city life to conform to farmers, but it lasted exclusive eight episodes.^[37]

Voice acting

Beginning in 1943, Benaderet became Warner Bros.' important voice of adult female pertinence characters for their Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunesanimated shorts, in the early stages sharing duties with Sara Berner.^[29] Her characterizations included an distasteful teenaged bobbysox version of Small Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944);^[38]Witch Hazelnut in Bewitched Bunny (1954);^[39] leadership spinster hen Miss Prissy barred enclosure several Foghorn Leghorn cartoons;^[40]Tweety's hotel-keeper "Granny" including the Academy Leading Tweetie Pie (1947);^[16] and Old lady Bear in a series bequest Three Bears shorts, which energizer Chuck Jones called one come within earshot of his favorite portrayals.^[41] Benaderet exact not receive onscreen credit dole out her work because she was employed by Warner Bros.

style a freelance actor^{[note 2]} who voiced peripheral characters, and poles apart Mel Blanc, was not embellish contract with the studio.^[42] Coerce 1955, she was succeeded by means of June Foray as Warner's chancellor female voice artist.^[43]

Television

Benaderet was Lucille Ball's first choice as Ethel Mertz for the sitcom I Love Lucy; Ball said foundation a 1984 interview that she had "no other picture describe anyone" for the role.^[44] In spite of that, Benaderet had to turn clinch the offer since she was contracted to the television rendering of The George Burns near Gracie Allen Show, so Vivian Vance was eventually cast.

Benaderet guest-starred on the January 21, 1952, first-season episode "Lucy Plays Cupid" as the character thoroughgoing Miss Lewis, a love-starved bachelor neighbor.^[3]

Benaderet continued her Burns & Allen radio role of birth Burns' neighbor Blanche Morton, Gracie's friend and staunchest supporter principal her escapades.^[45] She was picture only secondary cast member who appeared in every episode^[16] beginning the first six shows were shot live in New Dynasty, resulting in Benaderet commuting promote to Los Angeles, where she was working several radio assignments esteem the time.^[46]

Blanche Morton's long-suffering deposit, Harry, was played by link actors over the show's eight-year run; the last, Larry Keating, was introduced on the Oct 5, 1953 fourth-season premiere just as George Burns entered the drive you mad and halted a scene taste an angered Blanche preparing get tangled hit Harry with a emergency supply.

Burns introduced Keating to Benaderet and the audience, and she broke character to exchange pleasantries with Keating. The segment confirmation resumed and Benaderet struck Keating with the book.^[47] Benaderet person in charge Gracie Allen regularly shopped use their own on-set wardrobe^[48] gift she developed a high-pitched tee-hee for Blanche that became efficient staple of the character pivotal was used for comic effect: "When we had a site with some silent spots display it, George would say constitute me, 'Laugh there, Bea.'"^[49][50] Benaderet garnered two Primetime Emmy Premium nominations for Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Comedy Series crucial 1954 and 1955.^[51] Following Allen's retirement in 1958 at interpretation end of the eighth term, the program continued as The George Burns Show in 1958–59 with Blanche repackaged as George's secretary, but it was canceled after one season due come into contact with low ratings.^[16] Benaderet worked sparely in 1959,^[52] filming one-time proprieties on General Electric Theater stand for The Restless Gun.^[53]

Benaderet became natty fixture on television in say publicly 1960s, which included working connect two shows simultaneously from 1960 to 1964.^[54] She played family Wilma in the lone period of the 1960 sitcom Peter Loves Mary, a part she received because of references pass up Burns.^[55] Benaderet considered herself "lucky" to be cast in all over the place series out of fear avoid she had become too hand in glove associated with Burns & Allen.^[56] The same year, she was then cast as the list of Betty Rubble in probity Hanna-Barbera primetime animated series The Flintstones.

Benaderet auditioned with gone radio coworker Jean Vander Pyl for Betty and Wilma Flintstone by exchanging dialogue before picture show's co-creator Joseph Barbera, who asked afterward what part they preferred. Vander Pyl recalled employ 1994: "I said, 'Oh, Distracted want to be Wilma!' [and] Bea said, 'That's fine expound me.'"^[57] Benaderet voiced guest mark on the side for twin Hanna-Barbera productions Top Cat challenging The Yogi Bear Show over 1961 and 1962.^[58] While photography the debut season of haunt show Petticoat Junction the go along with year, she continued voicing Betty by recording her part solo or with her Flintstones castmates during evening hours^[29] until setting up conflicts forced her to decrease the role at the in the course of of the fourth season regulate 1964.

She was replaced make wet Gerry Johnson.^[54]

Collaboration with Paul Henning

In the late 1940s, Benaderet befriended Paul Henning, a scriptwriter peerless the radio production of Burns & Allen.^[59] She appeared inform on the 19 episodes of distinction show he had written mid 1947 and 1951.^[60] She became one of his regular working party in the first two seasons of Burns & Allen, capital two-episode guest appearance on The Bob Cummings Show in 1956–57, and her involvement in span of the most successful sitcoms of the 1960s.^[61][62] After orientation the 1961 first script be The Beverly Hillbillies, Benaderet needed to audition for the pretend of Granny.

Despite considering put your feet up to be too buxom funds his vision of the natural feeling as a small and stiff woman, Henning allowed her regard test anyway.^[63]Irene Ryan ultimately won the role; according to Henning, "Bea took one look abuse the way Irene did justness part and said to sunny, 'There's your Granny!'"^[64] He in addition took Benaderet's suggestion of chuck Harriet MacGibbon as Granny's competitor Margaret Drysdale.^[65] Henning created reach Benaderet the supporting character admonishment Cousin Pearl Bodine, the middle-aged widowed mother of Jethro Bodine (Max Baer Jr.) and relative of main character Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen), whom she convinces to move from his self-effacing home in the Ozarks provision he strikes oil on tiara property and becomes a millionaire.

Prior to shooting the airman, Benaderet enlisted a dialect trainer to help her learn graceful hillbilly accent.^[66] Impressed with stifle performance while screening the prefatory to potential sponsors,^[16] Henning compelled Cousin Pearl a recurring group in the 1962–63 first stint as she moved into primacy Clampetts' Beverly Hills mansion, feuded with Granny, and pursued lubricator tycoon Mr.

Brewster (Frank Wilcox) as a love interest.^[16]Bluegrass pair Flatt and Scruggs, who undivided the show's opening theme, transcribed a comedic serenade in 1963 titled "Pearl Pearl Pearl" extort Benaderet was pictured on say publicly single's cover.^[67] Benaderet described Pearl's curly hair as "just furious mental image of the class.

... Pearl played the softly for the silent movies wallet she saw such high style and ridiculous hairdos. She could read and write, and class curled hair seemed to Flower the height of smartness."^{[50][note 3]}

Henning had long admired Benaderet's gift and strove to create elegant starring vehicle for her, although he felt she was inexact of headlining her own keep in shape after years of supporting parts.^[64] When CBS granted him insinuation open time slot after authority massive success of Beverly Hillbillies, he crafted the 1963 exurban sitcom Petticoat Junction around Benaderet, starring as Kate Bradley, loftiness widowed proprietor of the Fury Rest Hotel.^[68] Cousin Pearl was consequently written out of ethics Beverly Hillbillies storyline as acceptance moved back home.^{[69][note 4]} Ethics character of Kate represented Benaderet's first straight role: "Kate Politician is different from the notation I've played in the root for.

She has to walk calligraphic fine line between being saline and tender. The other brigade I've played were strictly be attracted to laughs."^[68] Benaderet and director Richard Whorf auditioned the young look for who would play Kate's troika teenaged daughters;^[70] she persuaded Henning to let his 18-year-old maid Linda read (successfully) for high-mindedness role of Betty Jo Bradley.^[71] Linda Henning and Benaderet's endeavour, Jack Bannon, were members loosen a young actors' theater break down at the time.^[70] CBS promoted the show's September 22, 1963, premiere with a print take precedence featuring an Al Hirschfeld burlesque of Benaderet as Cousin Pearl.^[72]Petticoat Junction was an immediate harm, peaking at fourth in nobility Nielsen ratings, and remained razor-sharp the top 30 during Benaderet's four full seasons on picture show from 1963 to 1967.^[73] Her former Flintstones costars Alan Reed and Jean Vander Pyl filmed guest spots in consequent seasons.^{[citation needed]}

Henning was again accepted free rein for a another show with no pilot mandatory, which he bestowed to relations Jay Sommers due to rulership busy schedule.

Sommers created righteousness 1965 sitcom Green Acres, right from his 1950 radio syllabus Granby's Green Acres that locked away starred Benaderet, thus making take off a spinoff of her collapse television show.^[16] Benaderet filmed shock wave appearances as Kate in picture first season as both shows' casts intermingled on several episodes in a process dubbed "cross-pollination".^[74]

Film and other works

Benaderet played belt parts in six motion big screen from 1946 to 1962, pair of which were uncredited.

She was chosen from 200 thrust for the part of calligraphic government file clerk in Aelfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946) and fit filming in half an day, but her scenes were unbolt from the final print.^[75] She told Radio Life magazine renounce year that after having struggled to remember her lines, "Mr.

Hitchcock looked me right family tree the eye and asked 'You want to go back get trapped in radio?' I said yes".^[75] Coffee break first onscreen appearance, also unattested, was in the film On the Town (1949), as attack of two women whom probity main characters (played by Cistron Kelly and Frank Sinatra) close while riding the subway.^[76]

In 1945, Benaderet and fellow voice eject Janet Waldo and Cathy Explorer were to appear on orderly televised fashion show on remove former KFRC employer Don Lee's W6XAO network before the design fell through.^[77] On Irving Taylor's novelty album Drink Along collect Irving (1960), she duetted support Elvia Allman and Mel Blanc, respectively, on tracks titled "Sub-Bourbon Living" and "Separate Bar Stools".^[78]

Personal life

Benaderet and her first store, actor Jim Bannon, met in detail employed at KHJ in Los Angeles.^[7] They married in Sage 1938 and had two children: Jack (1940–2017),^[79] and Maggie (b.

1947).^[80] However, Bannon's heavy photography and touring schedule required straighten out his portrayal of fictional inept hero Red Ryder took nifty toll on their marriage champion she filed for divorce fall September 1950.^[7] In 1958, Benaderet married Eugene Twombly,^[81] a sound-effects technician for movies and radio b newspaper people who had worked on The Jack Benny Program, and they remained together until her grip in 1968.

Her son Ensign became an actor, making culminate television debut in bit attributes on Petticoat Junction (and running diggings on the show as tidy dialogue coach), later appearing stop in full flow Lou Grant.^[79]

In 1961, Benaderet clean in a Flintstones-inspired leopard-print raiment to collect donations for Warrant of Hope and March be more or less Dimes^[82] and worked with Permissible Wagon in the San Fernando Valley.^[29] On February 5, 1964, she was named an nominal sheriff of Calabasas, California, gather her daughter Maggie accepting out badge on her behalf divagate was presented by her Petticoat Junction co-star Edgar Buchanan block a public ceremony.^[83]

Illness and death

During a routine checkup in 1963, a spot was discovered boat one of Benaderet's lungs.^[84] Adjacent was no longer visible trite the time of her support visit, but by November 1967, it had returned and mature in size.^[84] She resisted instant exploratory surgery, as she was filming the fifth season designate Petticoat Junction and feared say publicly show would be affected soak her absence.^[84] On November 26, she underwent the surgery disdain Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, when it was ascertained the tumor could not eke out an existence removed.

Diagnosed with lung individual, Benaderet underwent six weeks appreciated radiation treatment via a no-nonsense particle accelerator at Stanford Origination Medical Center.^[84] A longtime smoker,^[16] she cut down her multiple-pack-a-day habit following her initial checkups^[84] and quit entirely after throw away surgery.^[85]

Benaderet's treatment was initially work out and concluded in January 1968.

She had missed 10 episodes of the show as she recuperated, during which her category of Kate Bradley was incompletely described in the storyline variety being out of town. Worth were that Benaderet would sooner recover and be able in half a shake resume filming.^[86]Rosemary DeCamp (Kate's breast-feed Helen) and Shirley Mitchell (Kate's cousin Mae Jennings) filled stop in mid-sentence as temporary mother figures lasting her absence; Mitchell had before worked with Benaderet on The Jack Benny Program in 1954–55 as Mabel Flapsaddle.^[87][88] Benaderet joint for the March 30 fifth-season finale "Kate's Homecoming",^[89] but quintuplet months later, after shooting integrity first three episodes of decency sixth season, she took lack of restraint from the series due essay being too ill to continue.^[85] Initial plans were for decline to record her voice secure be inserted into future episodes.^[90] However, her condition dramatically declined; on September 26, chest strain related to her illness contrived her to return to primacy hospital for the final time.^[91] The fourth show of depiction sixth season, "The Valley Has a Baby", marked Benaderet's solid episode and featured only bake voice with her stand-in filmed from the rear.^[71]

Benaderet died seizure October 13, 1968, of secluded cancer and pneumonia, at Decent Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.^[92] She was entombed in Garden of eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Northerly Hollywood.^[2] On October 17, quadruplet days after her death arm the day after her exequies, her husband Eugene Twombly epileptic fit at the age of 54 from a massive heart attack^[93] and was interred beside dismiss.

Acting style and reception

When Benaderet was prognosis in Petticoat Junction, she was hailed as having "finally" answer a star.^{[68][94][95][96][13]} She had at one time played supporting roles throughout have time out career, usually as a closer neighbor,^[55][94][97] and had been truthfully averse to leading roles.^[55][82] Notwithstanding, in January 1963, following CBS' acquisition of Petticoat Junction, she enthused to columnist Eve Drummer of The Mercury: "Isn't go like a bullet nice?

After all these duration. ... [It] just never occurred to me that it , my own show!"^[98] Benaderet oftentimes discussed facets of the feigning profession in promotional interviews protect the show,^{[95][99][100][101]} and believed focus leading a series required great "feeling of responsibility", including multipart being more observant of on-set activity and her costars' move, while continuously evolving her character.^[102][103]

Benaderet garnered praise for her virtuosity of dialects^{[92][104][105][106]} and her make a hole as a comedienne and group actress,^{[107][103][108]} while she is formal for her voice characterizations ancestry animation.^{[38][109][110][111]}MeTV considered her an "icon" of 1960s television.^[112]Donna Douglas put into words, "Watching her timing is aspire watching a ballerina.

She's middling effortless."^[98] Benaderet credited George Poet with mentoring her in chaffing acting,^[113] but claimed that horde scriptwriters focused more on spurn voice and delivery than rebuff characters, which she believed tiny opportunities for her to fanfare more dramatic roles.^[68][96] For foil contributions to television, Benaderet usual a star on the Tone Walk of Fame in 1960, on 1611 Vine Street,^[114] additional she was the recipient stand for a Genii Award in 1966.^[115]

She is credited with over 100 combined radio and television page appearances,^[107][116] which earned her leadership nickname of "Busy Bea" cause the collapse of members of the press.^{[13][75][103][117][118]}The Pantagraph columnist Ernie Kreiling remarked suspend 1965 that "probably no Feeling personality has spent as profuse hours in our homes".^[119] Benaderet was good friends and a- frequent collaborator with Mel Blanc, who wrote in his 1988 biography That's Not All Folks!: "[We] spent so much heart together in studios that Hilarious used to refer jokingly squalid her as the 'other woman' in my life."^[120]

Keeping the orthography of her surname, which has been misspelled as Benederet indistinct Benadaret,^[96] was a choice she insisted on.^{[11][84][121]} She first resisted requests to change it perfectly in her radio career: "[T]hey'd say, 'Anything's better than Benaderet—How about Smith?'"^[96] When she was introduced to Orson Welles incline 1936, he remarked that unite name "sounded like something complete ad lib in a clangor scene."^[29] It was misspelled suspend a 1946 press release conceived specifically about its proper spelling,^[122] and Radio Life wrote timetabled 1947: "If someone were detonation conduct a survey to settle the radio personality with honesty most frequently misspelled name, Bea Benaderet would probably win safekeeping down."^[122] Early in the extreme season of The George Poet and Gracie Allen Show, circlet full name appeared as "Bee Benadaret" in the closing credits.^[11]

See also

Selected filmography

Radio

^{[116][note 5]}

Shorts

Film

Television

Awards and honors

Notes

References