Everything about Bea Benaderet totally explained
Bea Benaderet (
April 4,
1906–
October 13,
1968) was an
American actress, born in
New York City and raised in
San Francisco, California. She is probably best remembered for starring in the hit
1960s television series
Petticoat Junction and as the original voice of
Betty Rubble on
The Flintstones. Benaderet reached stardom in her late 50s after over 20 years of active work as a supporting player on
radio and early
television, as well as a career doing voice work for
1940s and
1950s
Warner Bros. cartoons.
Career
Benaderet began voicing the character of Granny—the sometimes dimwitted, sometimes assertive owner of
Tweety Bird—in the Warner Bros. cartoon series beginning in 1947, and was one of the few female voice artists associated with the studio in the early days (as
Mel Blanc provided the majority of character voices at the time, even for female characters). Benaderet continued to play the voice of Granny into the 1950s, before
June Foray took over the role.
Benaderet first received notice for her radio work in the 1940s playing Millicent Carstairs on
Fibber McGee & Molly, telephone operator Gertrude Gearshift on
The Jack Benny Program, school principal Eve Goodwin on
the Great Gildersleeve and appeared on several
Amos 'n Andy radio shows, usually as a store clerk trying to assist Andy and Kingfish in a purchase. Benaderet also played Blanche Morton, next door neighbor to
George Burns and
Gracie Allen, on both radio and television.
She played
Lucille Ball's best friend, Iris Atterbury, on the 1940s radio series
My Favorite Husband. When Ball and husband
Desi Arnaz decided to create a very similar television series called
I Love Lucy, Benaderet was first choice to fill the role of
Ethel Mertz but was unavailable to take the role since she'd already signed for
Burns and Allen's television adaptation of their radio program.
Vivian Vance, an almost unknown character actress and singer, was eventually cast in the part. Benaderet did get to guest on
I Love Lucy on January 12, 1952 in a very amusing appearance as Miss Lewis, a love-starved spinster neighbor.
Benaderet was also seriously considered for the role of Granny in
The Beverly Hillbillies, created by her producer from
The Burns & Allen Show,
Paul Henning, who ultimately felt she was too buxom and womanly for the character he envisioned as a frail but caustic little spitfire;
Irene Ryan was eventually cast. Henning instead cast Benaderet as
Cousin Pearl Bodine (
Jethro's mother) in the series, and she appeared in the pilot and virtually every episode during the show's first season. Cousin Pearl and her daughter Jethrine moved into the Clampett mansion with the rest of the Clampett kin late in the first season, but after Henning cast Benaderet in the lead in his next series,
Petticoat Junction, debuting in September 1963, the female Bodines disappeared.
Petticoat Junction proved an enormous hit and was a top ten program for several years. Benaderet had done a radio variation of
Green Acres with
Gale Gordon beginning in 1950 called
Granby's Green Acres. The
Green Acres television series later became a spinoff of
Petticoat Junction, with
Eva Gabor playing Benaderet's counterpart in the TV series, and Benaderet herself showing up occasionally as her
Petticoat Junction character (
Eddie Albert took over
Gale Gordon's role as the lawyer who moves to the country to become a farmer; whether he was considered for the role or not, Gordon was otherwise occupied with his role on
The Lucy Show).
Benaderet was a "busy Bea" during this time, as she also played a part in another iconic television series of the 1960s, as the voice of
Betty Rubble on the cartoon series
The Flintstones, which debuted in 1960. Benaderet resigned from the animated series in 1964 due to the workload on
Petticoat Junction, and Betty would be voiced by
Gerry Johnson for the remainder of the series' run. Benaderet was no stranger to cartoon voice work. She had played many female characters in the Warner cartoons of the 1940s, showing a good deal of versatility, from her natural feminine voice, to the "Granny" character, to the loud-mouthed teenager in
Little Red Riding Rabbit.
The Flintstones re-united her with her 1940s co-worker
Mel Blanc (as Betty's husband,
Barney Rubble). Benaderet never received an on-screen credit for her voice characterizations with Warner, as the studio had a policy of not listing them (with the exception of Blanc, who had it written into his contract).
Illness
Benaderet became ill in 1967 which led to her leaving
Petticoat Junction in what was hoped would be a temporary retirement.
Rosemary DeCamp was brought in to play Aunt Helen in scripts obviously written for Benaderet's character Kate. Benaderet, however, was well enough to make a few additional appearances on the show. After Benaderet's death,
June Lockhart was brought in to play a female doctor who set up practice at the Shady Rest hotel and thus became the show's surrogate mother figure.
On
October 13,
1968, Bea Benaderet died from
lung cancer at the age of 62, and her body was interred in the
Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in
North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, next to her second husband,
Eugene Twombly, who died of a heart attack only four days after the death of his wife. Mr. Twombley was a sound effects man for many radio and television shows, including
The Jack Benny Program, on which Bea Benaderet was a regular.
Her son,
Jack Bannon (whose father was Bea's first husband,
Jim Bannon), later became a regular on
Lou Grant.
Filmography
Features:
Television Work
The George Burns Show (1958-1959)
The Flintstones (cast member from 1960-1964) (voice)
Peter Loves Mary (1960-1961)
The Beverly Hillbillies (recurring cast member from 1962-1963)
Petticoat Junction (cast member from 1963-1968)Further Information
Get more info on 'Bea Benaderet'.
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