Max Baer Jr. Is 88 and the Last Clampett Alive 😢

The faces you grew up with — where they are now. The Beverly Hillbillies premiered on CBS in September 1962 and ran for nine seasons and 274 episodes. Created by Paul Henning, it took a poor family from the Ozarks, handed them an oil fortune, and moved them to Beverly Hills so America could decide who the real fools were. Critics hated it — The New York Times called it strained and unfunny — and the country made it the number one show in the land for its first two seasons. The episode "The Giant Jackrabbit" is still the most-watched half hour of any sitcom in American television history. Seen from September 2026, only one member of the regular cast is still with us. Max Baer Jr. played Jethro Bodine, and at 88 he is the last surviving regular. The son of heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, he was so heavily typecast after 1971 that he moved behind the camera instead — writing and producing Macon County Line in 1974, which cost under $200,000 and took more than $30 million, and directing Ode to Billy Joe in 1976. He lives at Lake Tahoe. Buddy Ebsen played Jed Clampett. He had been cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz in 1938 until the aluminum dust in the makeup coated his lungs and nearly killed him, forcing him out of the picture. He went on to star in Barnaby Jones for eight more seasons and died on 6 July 2003, aged 95. Irene Ryan played Granny despite being only five and a half years older than Ebsen; she triumphed on Broadway in Bob Fosse's Pippin at 69, suffered a stroke during the run, and died on 26 April 1973 at 70 — leaving the money that still funds the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship today. Donna Douglas, chosen as Elly May from around 500 actresses, had already starred in the famous Twilight Zone episode "Eye of the Beholder"; she became a gospel singer for over thirty years and died of pancreatic cancer on 1 January 2015, aged 82. Nancy Kulp played Miss Jane Hathaway, earned an Emmy nomination in 1967, and ran for Congress in Pennsylvania in 1984 — only for Buddy Ebsen to record a radio advertisement supporting her opponent. She died on 3 February 1991, aged 69. Raymond Bailey, the anxious banker Milburn Drysdale, died on 15 April 1980 aged 75. Harriet MacGibbon, the magnificently appalled Mrs. Drysdale, had been a Broadway actress from the age of 19 and died on 8 February 1987, aged 81. Bea Benaderet played Cousin Pearl, was the original voice of Betty Rubble, and was still leading Petticoat Junction when she died of lung cancer on 13 October 1968, aged 62. We remember Bea Benaderet (1968), Irene Ryan (1973), Raymond Bailey (1980), Harriet MacGibbon (1987), Nancy Kulp (1991), Buddy Ebsen (2003), creator Paul Henning (2005) and Donna Douglas (2015) with gratitude and respect. Who did you watch The Beverly Hillbillies with? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe for more stories about the shows and the people you grew up with. Disclaimer: Ages, dates and figures were checked against publicly available sources as of September 2026; money amounts are estimates unless stated. This video uses an AI-assisted voiceover. This channel is a nostalgic tribute made with love and respect for the cast and their families.