Edgar Buchanan
Acting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edgar Buchanan (March 20, 1903 – April 4, 1979) was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s. As Uncle Joe, he took over as proprietor of the Shady Rest Hotel following the death of Bea Benaderet, who had played Kate Bradley. Early life Edgar Buchanan was born to Rose (Kee) Buchanan and William Edgar Buchanan Sr., DDS in Humansville, Missouri. He moved with his family to Oregon when he was seven. His father had a dental practice in Eugene, Oregon, and encouraged his son to follow suit. Buchanan Senior did not approve of his son's acting ambitions and pushed him to pursue dentistry instead. According to authors Arden and Joan Christen, Edgar's father believed "to choose a career in the theater was to settle for a life of mediocrity and uncertainty". Nevertheless, Edgar took courses in theater at the University of Oregon as a pre-med student, and was part of a Portland acting troupe in graduate school. He was also involved in the founding of the Portland Civic Theatre. In 1928, Edgar earned his DDS degree from North Pacific College School of Dentistry in Portland, Oregon, which later became Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry. During his time there, he met his future wife, Mildred "Millie" Spence (1907–1987). They married in 1928 - the same year they both graduated with dental degrees. The couple adopted a son and named him William Edgar "Buck" Buchanan III. Big changes came in 1939 when the family of three relocated their dental practice from Eugene, Oregon, to Altadena, California. There, Edgar joined the Pasadena Playhouse as an actor. Studio scouts spotted him performing at the playhouse and signed him into a seven-year deal in Hollywood. That same year, he appeared in his first film at age 36, and he left dentistry for good. Meanwhile, his wife, Dr. Millie Buchanan, DDS, took over the dental practice while also supporting her husband's new career as his talent manager. Career Buchanan appeared in more than 100 films, including Texas (1941), in which he played a dentist and appeared with William Holden and Glenn Ford and later in Penny Serenade (1941) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942) with Ronald Colman, Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, The Man from Colorado (1948), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), Shane (1953), She Couldn't Say No (1954), Ride the High Country (1962) with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, McLintock! (1963) with John Wayne, Move Over, Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner, and Benji (1974). Death Buchanan died from a stroke complicated by pneumonia in Palm Desert, California in 1979. He was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. CLR Description above from the Wikipedia article Edgar Buchanan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
The History of Hooterville
as Self (archive footage)
Age 102 (now 76)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Age 79 (now 76)
The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again
as Jason Fitch
Age 67 (now 76)
The Comancheros
as Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus Jackson Breen
Age 58 (now 76)
The Walls Came Tumbling Down
as George Bradford
Age 43 (now 76)
Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die
as Curly Bill
Age 39 (now 76)
When the Daltons Rode
as Narrator / Old-Timer (uncredited)
Age 37 (now 76)
General Electric Theater
as Colonel Starbottle
Age 49 (now 76)
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
as Park Commissioner
Age 49 (now 76)
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
as Henry Maguire
Age 48 (now 76)
Gathering insights...
Also Known As
William Edgar Buchanan II
IMDB
nm0118000