Bea Benaderet facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bea Benaderet
1966 publicity photo
Born	Beatrice Benaderet April 4, 1906 New York City, NY, U.S.
Died	October 13, 1968(1968-10-13) (aged 62) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress comedienne
Years active	1926–1968
Spouse(s)	Jim Bannon ​ ​ (m. 1938; div. 1950)​ Eugene Twombly ​ (m. 1958⁠–⁠1968)​
Children	2, including Jack Bannon

Bea Benaderet (born Beatrice Benaderet; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was a talented American actress and comedian. She was born in New York City and grew up in San Francisco. Bea started her career in theater and radio in the San Francisco area. Later, she moved to Hollywood and worked for over 30 years.

During the "golden age of radio," Bea was known for her amazing voice acting. She appeared on many shows with famous comedians like Jack Benny and Lucille Ball. Her skill with different voices and accents made her the main female voice for Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1940s to the mid-1950s.

Later, Bea became a big star in TV comedies. She was on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show from 1950 to 1958, and she was nominated for two Emmy Awards for her acting. In the 1960s, she had regular roles in four popular TV shows until her death in 1968. These shows included The Beverly Hillbillies, The Flintstones, and her most famous role as Kate Bradley in Petticoat Junction. Bea Benaderet has a special star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor her work in television.

Bea's Early Life

Beatrice Benaderet was born on April 4, 1906, in New York City. Her mother, Margaret, was Irish American. Her father, Samuel David Benaderet, was a Turkish immigrant who sold tobacco. In 1915, her family moved from New York City to San Francisco. Her father opened a tobacco shop there that stayed open for 65 years.

Bea grew up Catholic and went to a Dominican convent school. She learned to sing and play the piano. Her first acting role was at age 11, when she played an old man in a school play.

The next year, she was in a children's play called The Beggar's Opera. A local radio manager saw her and invited her to perform on his show. She was paid $10 for this one-time performance. When she was 16, Bea made her first professional theater appearance in a play called The Prince of Pilsen. After high school, she joined an acting group called The Players' Guild. She performed in many plays, including Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Her Amazing Career

Radio Star

Benaderet and Gale Gordon on Granby's Green Acres in 1950

In 1926, Bea Benaderet started working at a radio station in San Francisco called KFRC. She acted, sang, wrote, and produced shows there.

She first wanted to be a serious actress, but she soon switched to comedy. Bea performed on many radio shows, especially the Blue Monday Jamboree. On this show, she worked with future I Love Lucy producer Jess Oppenheimer. Bea became very good at doing different accents, like French, Spanish, and even Yiddish. She also hosted a music show called Salon Moderne. It was rare for a woman to be a radio announcer in the 1930s, but Bea did that too!

In 1936, Bea moved to Hollywood and joined radio station KHJ. She made her first national radio appearance with Orson Welles on The Campbell Playhouse. The next year, she got a big break on The Jack Benny Program. She played Gertrude Gearshift, a funny telephone operator who gossiped about Jack Benny. This role was only supposed to be for one time, but it became a regular part of the show. Bea often worked on five shows a day!

Bea played many other recurring characters on radio. She was Blanche Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. She also played school principal Eve Goodwin on The Great Gildersleeve, and Iris Atterbury on Lucille Ball's show My Favorite Husband. In 1950, Bea had her only main role in a radio show called Granby's Green Acres. She played a wife who moved to a farm with her husband, but the show only lasted eight episodes.

Voice Acting Queen

Starting in 1943, Bea Benaderet became the main voice for adult female characters in Warner Bros. cartoons. These included Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes. She voiced a sassy teenage Little Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944). She was also Witch Hazel in Bewitched Bunny (1954). Bea voiced the shy hen Miss Prissy in many Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. She was also "Granny," Tweety's owner, in cartoons like the Oscar-winning Tweetie Pie (1947). And she was Mama Bear in the Three Bears cartoons.

Bea didn't get credit on screen for her voice work. This was because she was a freelance actor for Warner Bros., not under a special contract like Mel Blanc. In 1955, another voice actress named June Foray took over as Warner's main female voice artist.

Television Star

Lucille Ball first wanted Bea Benaderet to play Ethel Mertz in the famous sitcom I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball said she couldn't imagine anyone else for the role. However, Bea had to say no because she was already signed on for the TV version of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. So, Vivian Vance got the part instead. Bea did appear as a guest star in one episode of I Love Lucy in 1952.

Bea continued her radio role as Blanche Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on TV. Blanche was the Burns' neighbor and Gracie's good friend. Bea was the only supporting cast member who appeared in every episode. She even earned two Emmy Award nominations for her role in 1954 and 1955.

After Gracie Allen retired in 1958, the show continued as The George Burns Show. Bea's character, Blanche, became George's secretary. But the show was canceled after one season. In 1959, Bea worked less, appearing in only a few guest roles.

Bea became a regular on television in the 1960s. For a while, she even worked on two shows at the same time! In 1960, she played the housekeeper Wilma in the sitcom Peter Loves Mary. The same year, she was cast as the voice of Betty Rubble in the cartoon series The Flintstones. Bea and Jean Vander Pyl (who voiced Wilma Flintstone) auditioned together. Bea voiced Betty for four seasons. She also did guest voices for other Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Top Cat and The Yogi Bear Show.

Working with Paul Henning

In the late 1940s, Bea became friends with Paul Henning, a writer for Burns & Allen. She appeared in many of his episodes. This friendship led to her being cast in three of the most successful sitcoms of the 1960s.

When Bea read the first script for The Beverly Hillbillies in 1961, she wanted to audition for the role of Granny. But Paul Henning thought she was too tall for the character. Irene Ryan ended up getting the role. Bea even helped Henning cast Harriet MacGibbon as Granny's rival.

Henning then created the role of Cousin Pearl Bodine especially for Bea. Pearl was the widowed mother of Jethro Bodine and cousin of Jed Clampett. She convinced Jed to move to Beverly Hills after he found oil on his land and became a millionaire. Bea even hired a special coach to help her learn a "hillbilly" accent for the role. Henning was so impressed that he made Cousin Pearl a regular character in the first season of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Paul Henning really admired Bea's talent. He wanted to create a show where she could be the main star. After the huge success of Beverly Hillbillies, CBS gave him a new time slot. So, Henning created the 1963 sitcom Petticoat Junction just for Bea. She starred as Kate Bradley, the owner of the Shady Rest Hotel. Because of this, Cousin Pearl was written out of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Bea said that playing Kate Bradley was different from her past roles. Kate had to be both funny and caring. Bea and the director auditioned young actresses to play Kate's three teenage daughters. Bea even convinced Henning to let his 18-year-old daughter, Linda Kaye Henning, audition for the role of Betty Jo Bradley, which she got! Petticoat Junction was an instant hit, becoming one of the top-rated shows on TV.

Henning also helped create another show called Green Acres in 1965. This show was based on an old radio program that Bea had starred in. Bea appeared as Kate in six episodes of Green Acres, and characters from both shows often visited each other.

Movies and Other Work

Bea Benaderet had small parts in six movies between 1946 and 1962. Four of these roles were not even credited. She was chosen from 200 actresses for a part in Alfred Hitchcock's movie Notorious (1946). She finished filming in just half an hour, but her scenes were cut from the final movie. Her first credited appearance was in the film On the Town (1949).

In 1960, Bea sang on a fun album called Drink Along with Irving. She sang duets with other voice actors like Elvia Allman and Mel Blanc.

Bea's Personal Life

Bea Benaderet met her first husband, actor Jim Bannon, while they both worked at KHJ radio station. They got married in August 1938 and had two children: Jack (born in 1940) and Maggie (born in 1947). However, Jim Bannon's busy filming schedule for his role as the cowboy hero Red Ryder made their marriage difficult. Bea filed for divorce in September 1950.

In 1958, Bea married Eugene Twombly. He was a sound-effects technician for movies and TV shows. They stayed together until her death in 1968. Her son, Jack, also became an actor. He first appeared in small roles on Petticoat Junction.

In 1961, Bea dressed up in a leopard-print costume, like her character Betty Rubble from The Flintstones. She did this to collect donations for charities like City of Hope and March of Dimes. In 1964, she was named an honorary sheriff of Calabasas, California. Her daughter Maggie accepted the badge for her at a public ceremony.

Illness and Passing

In 1963, during a regular checkup, doctors found a small spot on one of Bea's lungs. It seemed to disappear for a while, but by November 1967, it was back and larger. She didn't want to have surgery right away because she was filming the fifth season of Petticoat Junction. She worried her absence would affect the show.

On November 26, she had surgery in Los Angeles. Doctors found that the tumor could not be removed. Bea was diagnosed with lung cancer. She then had six weeks of special radiation treatment. Bea had been a smoker for a long time, but she cut back after her first checkups and completely quit after her surgery.

Bea's treatment was successful, and it finished in January 1968. She missed 10 episodes of Petticoat Junction while she recovered. Her character, Kate Bradley, was said to be "out of town" on the show. Everyone expected Bea to get better and return to filming. Other actresses filled in as temporary mother figures during her absence. Bea returned for the season finale in March 1968. However, five months later, after filming the first three episodes of the sixth season, she had to leave the show because she was too ill.

Bea Benaderet passed away on October 13, 1968, from lung cancer and pneumonia. She was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood. Four days after her death, her husband Eugene Twombly also passed away from a massive heart attack. He was buried next to her.

Images for kids

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  1966 publicity photo

• Bea Benaderet The Beverly Hillbillies 1962.jpg

  Bea Benaderet as Cousin Pearl Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962)

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  Crypt of Bea Benaderet at Valhalla Memorial Park

See also

• List of comedians
• List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Selected Filmography

Radio

• Blue Monday Jamboree (1927–1936)
• The Jack Benny Program (1937–1955)
• Fibber McGee and Molly (1939–1951)
• The Campbell Playhouse (1939–1940)
• Lux Radio Theatre (1940–1944)
• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1942–1949)
• The Great Gildersleeve (1943–1949)
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1944–1945)
• My Favorite Husband (1948–1951)
• Granby's Green Acres (1950)

Shorts (Voice Roles)

• Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)
• Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944)
• Tweetie Pie (1947)
• Bewitched Bunny (1954)

Film Roles

Television Roles

Awards and Honors