Max Baer Jr. | |
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 As Jethro in 1962 | |
| Born | Maximilian Adelbert Baer Jr. December 4, 1937 Oakland, California, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1949–1991 |
| Spouse | Joanne Kathleen Hill (m. 1966;div. 1971) |
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Maximilian Adelbert Baer Jr. (born December 4, 1937) is an American actor, producer, comedian, and director widely known for his role as Jethro Bodine, the dim-witted relative of Jed Clampett (played by Buddy Ebsen) on The Beverly Hillbillies .
Baer was born in Oakland, California, on December 4, 1937, the son of boxing champion Max Baer and his wife Mary Ellen Sullivan. [1] His paternal grandfather was of German Jewish descent, and his mother was of Irish descent. His brother and sister are James Manny Baer and Maude Baer. His uncle was boxer and actor Buddy Baer. [2]
He attended Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, where he earned letters in four sports and twice won the junior title at the Sacramento Open golf tournament. Playing with Charlie Sifford, he later won the pro–am tournament at the 1968 Andy Williams - San Diego Open. [3]
Baer served as a medical technician in the U.S. Air Force at Gunter Air Force Base Alabama. [4] Baer later earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Santa Clara University, with a minor in philosophy. [5]
Baer's first acting role was in Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Blackpool Pavilion in England in 1949. He began acting professionally in 1960 at Warner Bros., where he made appearances on television programs such as Maverick , Surfside 6 , Hawaiian Eye , Cheyenne , The Roaring 20's , and 77 Sunset Strip . [6] His career took off two years later, when he joined the cast of The Beverly Hillbillies . [6] [5]
In 1962, Baer was cast in the role of the naïve but well-meaning Jethro Bodine, Jed Clampett's cousin Pearl's son. [5] He also played Jethro's twin sister Jethrine, though her voice was dubbed by actress Linda Kaye Henning. [7]
He continued to take other parts during the nine-year run of The Beverly Hillbillies and appeared on the television programs Love, American Style, as well as in the Western A Time for Killing. [8]
He declined to appear in the 1981 TV movie Return of the Beverly Hillbillies and his character was recast as a result. [9]
Following the cancellation of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1971, Baer made numerous guest appearances on television, but he found his TV acting career hampered by typecasting. He concentrated on feature motion pictures, especially behind the camera, writing, producing, and directing. Baer wrote and produced the drama Macon County Line (1974), [10] in which he played Deputy Reed Morgan, the highest-grossing movie per dollar invested at the time. Made for less than US$200,000, it earned upwards of US$30 million at the box office, a record that lasted until The Blair Witch Project surpassed it in 1999. [10] [11] [12] Baer also wrote, produced, and directed the drama The Wild McCullochs (1975), and played the role of Culver Robinson. [13]
Baer is credited with being one of the first to use the title of a popular song as the title and plot anchor of a film, acquiring the rights to Bobbie Gentry's hit song and producing the 1976 film Ode to Billy Joe , which he also directed. Made for US$1.1 million, the film grossed $27 million at the box office, and earned over US$2.65 million outside the US, US$4.75 million from television, and US$2.5 million from video. The film starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. [14]
Since the success of Ode to Billy Joe, the motion picture industry has produced more than 100 song-title movies. Baer pursued the rights to the hit song "Like a Virgin", recorded by the singer Madonna in 1984. When ABC tried to prevent him from making the film, he sued and won a judgment of more than US$2 million. [15]
He directed the 1979 comedy Hometown U.S.A. before retiring to his home at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He continues to make occasional guest appearances on television.[ citation needed ]
In 1985, Baer began investigating the gambling industry. He noted that tourists paid a US$5 to $6 admission to tour the "Ponderosa Ranch", in Incline Village, Nevada, which was the location for filming exterior scenes for episodes of TV's popular program Bonanza . The Ponderosa was a cattle ranch with horses, barns, Bonanza displays, restaurants, hay rides, and a wedding chapel, and tourists enjoyed the Ponderosa because of the Bonanza connection. Baer decided that tourists would also pay for something dealing with The Beverly Hillbillies. He began using his Jethro Bodine role as a marketing opportunity toward the gambling and hotel industry. Baer obtained the sublicensing rights, including food and beverage rights, to The Beverly Hillbillies from CBS in 1991. His business partner estimates the cost of obtaining the rights and developing the ideas at US$1 million. Sixty-five Beverly Hillbillies slot machines were built in 1999 and placed in 10 casinos. [16]
In late 2003, Baer attempted the redevelopment of a former Walmart location in Carson City into a Beverly Hillbillies-themed hotel and casino, but was unsuccessful due to building code conflicts and other developers on the neighboring properties. On May 4, 2007, he announced the sale of the property and the purchase of another parcel just outside Carson City, in neighboring Douglas County, where he expected less resistance to his plans. Baer purchased a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) parcel in north Douglas County for US$1.2 million, and would purchase an additional 20 acres (8.1 ha) once he obtained the required zoning variances. The plans were for a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) gambling area with 800 slot machines and 16 tables, flanked by various eateries, including "Jethro's All You Ken Et Buffet". The project would feature a showroom, cinema complex and a 240-room, five-story hotel. [17]
Plans for Baer's casino included a 200-foot-tall (61 m) mock oil derrick spouting a 20- to 30-foot (9.1 m) flame.
As of July 2012, development of Jethro's Casino had been suspended. Ongoing litigation involving Baer, the developer and Douglas County has delayed the development of the project indefinitely. [18]
In 2014, Baer sued CBS after claiming a secret deal with a Des Moines-based Jethro's BBQ was interfering with his opportunity to cash in on his role from the iconic television show. The lawsuit claims that Baer negotiated a deal with CBS in 1991 for the rights to use the fictional character and other motifs from the show to create a chain of restaurants, hotels, and casinos. [19]
He remained close friends with Buddy Ebsen until Ebsen's death from pneumonia on July 6, 2003. Just before his acting mentor's death, Donna Douglas and he both had visited Ebsen in the hospital. [20]
In January 2008, Baer's live-in girlfriend, 30-year-old Penthouse model Chere Rhodes, committed suicide in the 70-year-old's Lake Tahoe home. Her suicide note mentioned "relationship problems". [21] [22]
The 2015 death of co-star Donna Douglas left Baer as the only surviving regular cast member of The Beverly Hillbillies. [23]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Maverick | Ticket Taker / Chuck / Brazos | 3 episodes — "Bundle from Britain" — "A Bullet for the Teacher" — "Kiz" |
| 1960–1961 | Surfside 6 | Joe Wilk / Party Guest | 2 episodes — "High Tide" (1960) — "Facts on the Fire" (1961) |
| 1960–1961 | Cheyenne | Callow / Bert McGuire / Pete | 4 episodes — "Two Trails to Santa Fe" (1960) — "Duel at Judas Basin" (1961) — "The Beholden" (1961) — "The Frightened Town" (1961) |
| 1960–1961 | Hawaiian Eye | Ali / Bill Gorham | 2 episodes — "Vanessa Vanishes" (1960) — "The Big Dealer" (1961) |
| 1960–1961 | 77 Sunset Strip | Government Man / Luther Martell / Billy Blackston | 3 episodes — "Double Trouble" (1960) — "The Corsican Caper" (1961) — "The Chrome Coffin" (1961) |
| 1961 | Bronco | Cowboy | Episode: "The Invaders |
| 1961 | Sugarfoot | Frank | Episode: "Angel" |
| 1962 | Follow the Sun | Tom Baylor | Episode: "A Choice of Weapons" |
| 1962 | It's a Man's World | 1st GI | Episode: "Drive Over to Exeter" |
| 1962–1971 | The Beverly Hillbillies | Jethro Bodine | main role (273 episodes) TV Land Award for Favorite "Fish Out of Water" (2004) |
| 1962–1971 | Jethrine Bodine | 11 episodes Jethro's twin sister [7] | |
| 1967 | A Time for Killing | Sergeant Luther Liskell | |
| 1967 | Dream Girl of '67 | Himself (Bachelor Judge) | series regular (10 episodes) |
| 1968 | Hollywood Squares | Himself (Panelist) | recurring role (5 episodes) |
| 1971 | The Birdmen | Tanker | Television Movie |
| 1972 | Two for the Money | — | Producer |
| 1972–1973 | Love, American Style | Rocky / Jackie Lee Rhodes | 2 episodes — "Love and the Fullback" (1972) — "Love and the Games People Play" (1973) |
| 1974 | Macon County Line | Deputy Reed Morgan | also Producer/Writer |
| 1975 | The Wild McCullochs | Culver Robinson | also Director/Producer/Writer |
| 1976 | Ode to Billy Joe | — | Director/Producer |
| 1979 | Fantasy Island | Big Jake Farley | Episode: "Nobody's There/The Dancer" |
| 1979 | Hometown U.S.A. | — | Director |
| 1980 | The Asphalt Cowboy | Max Caulpepper | Television Movie |
| 1982 | The Circle Family | Hearst Circle | Television Movie |
| 1984 | Matt Houston | Andy MacKay | 2 episodes — "Return to Nam: Part 1" — "Escape from Nam: Part 2" |
| 1989 | Murder, She Wrote | Johnny Wheeler | Episode: "Jack and Bill" |
| 1991 | State Trooper Boone Willoughby | Episode: "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?" | |
| 2005 | Biography | Himself (Interviewee) | Episode: "Buddy Ebsen" |
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from Silver Dollar City in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, who move to posh Beverly Hills, California, after striking oil on their land. The show was produced by Filmways and was created by Paul Henning. It was followed by two other Henning-inspired "country cousin" series on CBS: Petticoat Junction and its spin-off Green Acres, which reversed the rags-to-riches, country-to-city model of The Beverly Hillbillies.
Buddy Ebsen, also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971); afterwards he starred as the title character in the television detective drama Barnaby Jones (1973–1980).
Barnaby Jones is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law, who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was originally introduced as a midseason replacement on the CBS network and ran from 1973 to 1980. Halfway through the series' run, Mark Shera was added to the cast as a much younger cousin of Ebsen's character, who eventually joined the firm.
Green Acres is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series was first broadcast on CBS, from September 15, 1965, to April 27, 1971.
Nancy Jane Kulp was an American character actor, writer and comedian best known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedian who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.
Donna Douglas was an American actress and singer, known for her role as Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). Following her acting career, Douglas became a real estate agent, gospel singer, inspirational speaker, and author of books for children and adults.
Raymond Thomas Bailey was an American actor on the Broadway stage, films, and television. He is best known for his role as greedy banker Milburn Drysdale in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Jerry Scoggins was an American country/western singer, guitarist, and band leader. He performed on radio, in movies, and on television from the 1930s thru the 1980s. He was noted for his work with Gene Autry and Bing Crosby and especially for singing "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the theme song to the 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.
Filmways, Inc. was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production company of CBS' "rural comedies" of the 1960s, including Mister Ed, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres, as well as the comedy-drama The Trials of O'Brien, the western Dundee and the Culhane, the adventure show Bearcats!, the police drama Cagney & Lacey, and The Addams Family. Notable films the company produced include The Sandpiper, The Cincinnati Kid, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Ice Station Zebra, Summer Lovers, The Burning, King, Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, and Death Wish II.
The Beverly Hillbillies is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Jim Varney, Diedrich Bader, Dabney Coleman, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leachman, Rob Schneider, Lea Thompson and Lily Tomlin.
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" is the theme song for the television series The Beverly Hillbillies and the later movie of that name, providing the introductory story for the series. The song was composed by Paul Henning, and recorded first by bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, with Jerry Scoggins singing. The single phono-album version, released for radio and retail sale, merges both the beginning and ending lyrics of the theme song of the television series. The beginning theme comprises the first two verses, and the ending theme is the third verse. A banjo-dominated sequence occurs between verses and as the ending fade-out. The song was sung by Jerry Scoggins for the beginning of the series, with instruments played by Flatt and Scruggs.
"Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a cover of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits with the lyrics replaced by those of The Beverly Hillbillies theme song. The music video, which appeared as part of Yankovic's film UHF, is a parody of the "Money for Nothing" music video.
There are several uses of the word Bodine:
Leo "Zeke" Manners was an American country musician.
Gloria Neil is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Beverly Hillbillies, as well as the 1960s-era films The Beach Girls and the Monster and The Karate Killers.
Bourbon Square Casino was a casino and former hotel in Downtown Sparks, Nevada. The property operated until January 11, 2009, as Silver Club. The property reopened as Bourbon Square on August 1, 2013, and operated until February 5, 2015. It was demolished in 2018.
Return of the Beverly Hillbillies is a 1981 American made-for-television comedy film based on the 1962–1971 sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies which reunited original cast members Buddy Ebsen, Donna Douglas and Nancy Kulp reprising their characters of Jed Clampett, Elly May Clampett and Jane Hathaway, along with newcomers Werner Klemperer as C.D. Medford, Ray Young as Jethro Bodine and Imogene Coca as Granny's 100-year-old mother; original cast members Irene Ryan (Granny) and Raymond Bailey had died in 1973 and 1980 respectively, and Max Baer Jr. declined to participate.
The Beverly Hillbillies is a video game developed by Synergistic Software and published in 1993 by Capstone Software for IBM PC compatibles. It was released in conjunction with the 1993 film of the same name. The game, a point-and-click adventure, tells the story of the Clampetts, a poor family in the Ozarks who discover oil on their property and become millionaires, moving to Beverly Hills with their newfound wealth. Despite being a tie-in to the film, the game shares only vague similarities in plot.
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