
Edgar Buchanan
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.
38 TV shows
TV Shows

Perry Mason
CBS

Bonanza
NBC

The Andy Griffith Show
CBS

The Twilight Zone
CBS

Maverick
ABC

Wagon Train
NBC

The Beverly Hillbillies
CBS

The Rifleman
ABC

Have Gun, Will Travel
CBS

Leave It to Beaver
ABC

Petticoat Junction
CBS

Climax!
CBS

Route 66
CBS

Wanted: Dead or Alive
CBS

Dr. Kildare
NBC

The Merv Griffin Show
CBS

Bat Masterson
NBC

Studio One
CBS

Green Acres
CBS

Gunsmoke
CBS

The Tall Man
NBC

Thriller
NBC

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
NBC

The Partridge Family
ABC

Bronco
ABC

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
ABC

Laramie
NBC

The Millionaire
CBS

The Ford Television Theatre
Network unknown

Trackdown
CBS

The Barbara Stanwyck Show
NBC

Riverboat
NBC

The Danny Thomas Show
ABC

Outlaws
NBC

26 Men
Network unknown

Cavalcade of America
ABC

Stoney Burke
ABC

The Adventures of Jim Bowie
ABC
Other Credits
General Electric Theater, Bringing Up Buddy, Bus Stop, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, National Velvet, Vacation Playhouse, Judge Roy Bean, Hopalong Cassidy, Cade's County, The Californians, The Restless Gun, Stagecoach West, The Lloyd Bridges Show, The Gale Storm Show, The Mod Squad