Friday, August 26, 2011

Edgar Buchanan
(March 30, 1903 - April 4, 1979)



Intending to become a dentist like his father, American character actor Edgar Buchanan wound up with grades so bad in college that he was compelled to take an easy course to improve his average. Buchanan chose a course in play interpretation and after listening to a few recitations of Shakespeare he was stagestruck. After completing dental school, Buchanan plied his oral surgery skills in the summertime, devoting the fall, winter and spring months to acting in stock companies and at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. He was given a screen test by Warner Brothers Studios in 1940, received several bit roles, then worked himself up to supporting parts upon transferring to Columbia Pictures. Though still comparatively youthful, Buchanan specialized in grizzled old westerners, with a propensity towards villainy or at least larceny. The actor worked at every major studio over the next few years, still holding onto his dentist's license just in case he needed something to fall back on. Though he preferred movie work to the hurried pace of TV filming, Buchanan was quite busy in television's first decade, costarring with William Boyd on the immensely popular "Hopalong Cassidy" series, then receiving a starring series of his own, "Judge Roy Bean", in 1954. Buchanan became an international success in 1963 thanks to his regular role as the lovably lazy Uncle Joe Bradley on the classic sitcom "Petticoat Junction", which ran until 1970. After that, the actor experienced a considerably shorter run on the adventure series "Cade's County", which starred Buchanan's close friend Glenn Ford. Buchanan's last movie role was in "Benji" in 1974.

EDGAR BUCHANAN FILMOGRAPHY

My Son is Guilty (1939)
Too Many Husbands (1940)
Arizona (1940)
Texas (1941)
The Talk of the Town (1942)
Destroyer (1943)
Abilene Town (1946)
Framed (1947)
The Black Arrow (1948)
The Man From Colorado (1949)
The Big Hangover (1950)
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
Rawhide (1951)
Shane (1953)
She Couldn't Say No (1954)
Make Haste to Live (1954)
Human Desire (1954)
Destry (1954)
Wichita (1955)
Rage at Dawn (1955)
Come Next Spring (1956)
The Sheepman (1958)
The Devil's Partner (1958)
Day of the Badman (1958)
It Started With a Kiss (1959)
Hound Dog Man (1959)
Edge of Eternity (1959)
Cimarron (1960)
The Comancheros (1961)
Tammy Tell Me True (1961)
Ride the High Country (1962)
A Ticklish Affair (1963)
Move Over, Darling (1963)
McLintock! (1963)
The Rounders (1965)
Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
Angel in My Pocket (1968)
Benji (1974)


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