The seven-time Emmy-nominated series was a huge hit and made stars of Buddy Ebsen (who played Jed Clampett), Donna Douglas (
Her death leaves only one member of the show's original cast still alive: Max Baer Jr., who played Elly May's cousin, Jethro. He is 77.
Jed's wife (Elly May's mother) died but is referred to in the episode "Duke Steals A Wife" as Rose Ellen. He is the son of Luke Clampett and his wife, and has a sister named Myrtle.
He was 95 and lived in Palos Verdes, Calif. The lanky, 6-foot-3-inch Mr. Ebsen was the canny Jed Clampett, the patriarch of "The Beverly Hillbillies," a popular CBS situation comedy about an Ozark farm family transplanted to a California mansion by sudden oil wealth.
The Chartwell Mansion is a Chateauesque mansion in Bel-Air, California. Built in 1933, it is best known for its role as the Clampett family home in the 1960s television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.
The seven-time Emmy-nominated series was a huge hit and made stars of Buddy Ebsen (who played Jed Clampett), Donna Douglas (Elly May Clampett), Irene Ryan (Granny), and Max Baer Jr. (Jethro). Today, Baer is the only cast member still alive.
The Beverly Hillbillies was filmed at Kirkeby mansion in Bel Air. Mr. and Mrs. Kirkeby rented their beautiful home to the series for $500 a day.
Critter-loving Elly May was still in California with her animals, but Jed was back home in the Hills, having lost his fortune, stolen by the now-imprisoned banker Drysdale.
Max Baer Jr. is the final surviving member from the classic sitcom. The final episode of The Beverly Hillbillies aired over 50 years ago, and sadly, the passing of so much time means that only one star of the classic sitcom is still alive today.
In 1986, the mansion went through a restoration that kept all of the building's original charm. It sits on a 10-acre lot and features a tennis court, beautiful garden, a guest house, a 75-foot swimming pool and even a covered parking lot big enough to hold 40 cars.
The Clampetts were rich, but not billionaires
According to the first season of the show, Jed Clampett's fortune was $25,000,000, which, adjusted for inflation, is about $200,000,000 today.
That's about $215 million in today's dollars. It's a pretty good score for a guy with bad aim. But when the show ended nine years later, that amount had nearly quadrupled as The Beverly Hillbillies were worth about $850 million in 2021 dollars. Mr.
According to an article released on ScreenRant.com in 2020, when the show premiered in 1962 it was said that the Clampetts had amassed a fortune of $25 million thanks to that “black gold” or “Texas tea.”
It wasn't much of a stretch for Douglas to fit into the troupe, said Smith, the niece. "She was always happy, and she really loved animals — just like her character on 'The Beverly Hillbillies.
Irene Ryan, "Granny", Beverly Hillbillies, grave or crypt, Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California, photo.
The Kirkeby Mansion is still currently standing at 750 Bel Air Road in Bel-Air in almost the exact same condition (the exterior anyway) it was in the 1960s when The Beverly Hillbillies was filmed. It is, sadly, no longer visible from the street.
On March 10, 1973, Ryan suffered an apparent stroke during a performance of Pippin, flew home to California on her doctor's orders, and was hospitalized. She was diagnosed with an inoperable glioblastoma (malignant brain tumor). Ryan died at St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, California, on April 26, 1973, aged 70.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 26 (UPI)—Irene Ryan, whose 60‐year acting career reached climax when she became a television star In the “Beverly Hillbillies” series, died today at the age of 70.
Tracy Richards (Martha Hyer) is the main antagonist in the 1966 episode "The Richest Woman" of the TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies". Tracy shows up the Clampett mansion in Beverly Hillbillies along with her personal financial manager and wants to buy the place.
1 show in its first two years. It aired from September 1962 until its cancellation in March 1971. The blond, shapely Douglas, a native of Pride, La., who was named Miss New Orleans in a 1957 beauty contest, started out making $500 a week on the show. That rose to $3,000 in the ninth and final season of the series.
The Clampett family had lived off the land, hunting, fishing, and gathering their resources. But, when the Clampett Clan leader, Jed Clampett, becomes a millionaire, discovering a massive oil field he wants to be removed from his land. They relocate to Beverly Hills where the family was painfully out of place.
The Ralph Foster Museum's best known exhibit is a cut-down 1921 Oldsmobile Model 46 Roadster, the truck used in the original Beverly Hillbillies TV series. It was a Bicentennial gift to the museum by the show's producer, Paul Henning, who grew up nearby.
Today the original 'Beverly Hillbillies' car is in a museum
The 1921 Oldsmobile Truck that was the original “Beverly Hillbillies” car today is in the Ralph Foster Museum, located on the College of the Ozarks campus.