[msb-alumni] 'Beverly Hillbillies' star Donna Douglas dies at 81
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2015 15:12:39 -0500
Blank'Beverly Hillbillies' star Donna Douglas dies at 81 Donna Douglas, who
played hillbilly bombshell Elly May Clampett on the baby-boomer-beloved
1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies , has died. She was 81. Her family
confirmed the death Friday at her home in Zachary, La., to a local TV
station, WAFB and other media outlets. 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. "She was Elly May until the day she died," Baer
told the website RumorFix . "When I saw her for autograph signings or other
gatherings, she always dressed the same with pink or blue" and of course
those signature pigtails. He said he last saw Douglas in January 2013 for an
autograph signing in Los Angeles. He said she had pancreatic cancer for the
last months of her life. "But she was a very private person ? nothing like
me. A friend told him Donna had a message for him: "Tell Maxie I thought I
was going to get better. Douglas, a former Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New
Orleans, was born in 1933, in Pride, La., and lived in Zachary, La.. She
attended a local Catholic high school, where she played softball and
basketball, and was a member of the school's first graduating class. But
she'll always be known as Elly May ? the tomboy-but-sweetly sexy blond
Clampett daughter who never seemed to be aware of her effect on men, and who
referred to their Beverly Hills mansion swimming pool as the "SEE-ment pond.
Douglas also will be remembered as co-starring opposite Elvis Presley in the
1966 film Frankie and Johnny . The Beverly Hillbillies was a classic
fish-out-of water comedy about a poor backwoods family transplanted to
California after striking oil ("black gold" as the banjo-inflected theme
song went) on their land. Starring Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett (he died in
2003), the show ran for nine years on CBS, from 1962 to 1971. It
consistently ranked in the top most-watched programs on TV during its run.
Boomers could sing the theme song by heart but even some non-boomers
expressed appreciation on Twitter at the news of Douglas' death.
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