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Beatrice "Bea" BENADARET

Female 1906 - 1968  (62 years)


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  • Name Beatrice "Bea" BENADARET 
    Birth 4 Apr 1906  New York City, New York County, NY Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Name Beatrice "Bea" BENADARET 
    Death 13 Oct 1968  Los Angeles County, CA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Burial Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles County, CA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • (1) "Bea Benaderet," from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

      Early life

      Benaderet was born in 1906 in Manhattan, although occasionally her year of birth was given as 1907 or 1909 in census records. Her father Samuel was a Turkish Jewish emigrant. Her mother, Margaret (née O'Keefe), was Irish-American. Her family moved to San Francisco, California, around 1910, where she attended St. Rose Academy, a private girls' school.

      Radio career

      Her debut on radio came when she was 12. She had performed in a children's production of The Beggar's Opera on KGO. Her first job in radio was at KFRC in San Francisco, California. Her responsibilities there included acting, singing, writing, and producing. Bea Benaderet was a member of the Mercury Theatre repertory company heard in Orson Welles's radio presentations including "Escape", "The Magnificent Ambersons," "The Hurricane," "A Christmas Carol," "Craig's Wife" and "June Moon." She first received notice for her radio work in the 1940s on Fibber McGee & Molly, The Jack Benny Program, My Favorite Husband, The Mel Blanc Show, The Great Gildersleeve, and Amos 'n Andy. She played Blanche Morton, the next-door neighbor to George Burns and Gracie Allen, on both the radio and television incarnations of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.

      Television

      When Lucille Ball and husband Desi Arnaz decided to develop a program for CBS television called I Love Lucy, Benaderet, who had worked with Ball on My Favorite Husband, was the first choice to fill the role of Ethel Mertz, but was ultimately unavailable to accept it since she had already been cast for the fledgling television production of The Burns and Allen Show. While three different actors played her husband during the course of the series, but Benaderet co-starred on the show throughout its run on both radio and television, as Gracie's best friend and neighbor. Vivian Vance, a relatively unknown character actress and singer, was eventually cast in the Ethel Mertz part. Benaderet did eventually appear in a guest role on I Love Lucy on January 21, 1952, as "Miss Lewis", a love-starved spinster neighbor.

      Benaderet was a cast member of the NBC sitcom series "Peter Loves Mary" starring Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy. Benederet played Wilma. "Peter Loves Mary" ran during the 1960-1961 season. She was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress (1954, 1955) for her work on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. In addition to her more familiar comedic roles, Benaderet had a dramatic role in The Restless Gun in 1959.

      Voice acting

      Benaderet voiced numerous female characters in the Warner Bros. animated shorts of the 1940s, including "Granny," the sometimes dimwitted, sometimes assertive owner of Tweety. She performed the voice of Granny until 1955, when she was succeeded by June Foray. She also portrayed Little Red Riding Hood as a loud, obnoxious teenager in the 1944 Bugs Bunny cartoon Little Red Riding Rabbit. Bea Benaderet also voiced "The Flintstones" Betty Rubble from seasons one (1960) to four before resigning in 1964 due to the workload on Petticoat Junction.

      Family

      Benaderet and her first husband, actor Jim Bannon had two children: Jack, an actor, and Maggie.

      Later life and career

      Benaderet was busy during the last decade of her life, starting with a voice role as Betty Rubble in the animated series The Flintstones, which debuted in 1960. The Flintstones reunited Benaderet with her 1940s co-workers Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone) and Mel Blanc (Barney Rubble and Dino). Benaderet received no on-screen credit for her many voice characterizations with Warner Bros., as the studio was bound by Blanc's contractual stipulation that no other voice actor receive credit while he was under contract to Warners.

      Benaderet was considered for the role of Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies by producer Paul Henning, who felt she was too buxom and feminine for the character he envisioned as a frail but caustic spitfire; Irene Ryan was eventually cast. Henning cast Benaderet as middle-aged, widowed Cousin Pearl Bodine (Jethro's mother), and she appeared in the pilot, as well as a majority of episodes throughout the series' first season. Cousin Pearl and her daughter Jethrine (Max Baer, Jr. in drag with Linda Kaye Henning providing the voice) moved into the Clampett mansion in the first season. However, the female Bodines disappeared after Henning cast Benaderet in his next series Petticoat Junction, which premiered in September 1963. She starred as Kate Bradley owner/operator of the Shady Rest Hotel.

      Petticoat Junction proved an enormous hit in its first season, and remained a top-25 program for several years. Benaderet had done a radio variation of Green Acres with Gale Gordon beginning in 1950 called Granby's Green Acres. Green Acres was a spinoff of Petticoat Junction, with Eva Gabor portraying Benaderet's original part, and Benaderet herself appearing in several episodes as her Petticoat Junction character, in order to establish the Hooterville setting. (Eddie Albert took Gale Gordon's role as the lawyer who moves to the country to become a farmer as Gordon was then occupied with his role as "Mr. Mooney" on The Lucy Show.)

      Illness/death

      Benaderet was diagnosed with cancer in 1967, which led to her departure from Petticoat Junction in what was hoped would be a temporary absence. On October 13, 1968, Benaderet died in Los Angeles, California, aged 62 at the Good Samaritan Hospital from lung cancer and pneumonia. She was survived by her second husband, and her two children. She was entombed in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Her second husband, Eugene Twombly, suffered a heart attack and died on the day of her funeral, just four days after her death. He was interred beside her. Twombly had been a sound-effects artist for a number of radio and television shows.

      Walk of Fame

      Benaderet was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame February 8, 1960, as a star of television. Her star is at 1611 Vine Street.

      (2) California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database online], Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000

      Name: Beatrice Twombly
      Social Security #: 564-14-6852
      Gender: Female
      Birth Date: 4 Apr 1906
      Death Date: 13 Oct 1968
      Death Place: Los Angeles
      Mother's Maiden Name: Okeefe

      (3) www.findagrave.com:

      Bea Benaderet
      Birth: Apr. 4, 1906, New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA
      Death: Oct. 13, 1968, Studio City, Los Angeles County, California, USA

      Actress. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California, she had a remarkable career in radio and television. She launched her network radio career in 1936, appearing as a regular on The Campbell Playhouse", "The Jack Benny Show", "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet", "The Great Gildersleeve" and "Fibber McGee and Molly". For television, she is best remebered as the voice of Betty Rubble on the "Flintstones" and as Kate Bradley on "Petticoat Junction". She also played the role of Blanche Morton on "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" and was a regular on the "The Beverly Hillbillies". She died in Studio City, California. (bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith)

      Family links: Parents: Samuel David Benaderet (1884 - 1954), Margaret O' Keefe Benaderet (1888 - 1936); Spouses: Jim Bannon (1911 - 1984), Eugene Tracy Twombly (1914 - 1968)

      Cause of death: Lung Cancer

      Burial: Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California, USA
      Plot: Mausoleum of Hope, Row C, Crypt 34
      GPS (lat/lon): 34.18778, -118.3632

      Maintained by: Find A Grave
      Record added: Jan 01, 2001
      Find A Grave Memorial# 2357
    Person ID I41482  Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
    Last Modified 10 Oct 2023 

    Family 1 James Shorttel "Jim" BANNON,   b. 9 Apr 1911, Kansas City, Jackson County, MO Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Jul 1984, Ventura County, CA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 73 years) 
    Marriage Aug 1938 
    Divorce 1950 
    Children 
     1. John James BANNON,   b. 14 Jun 1940, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 25 Oct 2017, Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai County, ID Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 77 years)
     2. Living
    Family ID F17818  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Mar 2024 

    Family 2 Eugene Tracy TWOMBLY,   b. 27 Apr 1914, CA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 17 Oct 1968, Los Angeles County, CA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 54 years) 
    Family ID F17819  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Mar 2024 

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