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)
Madge Blake was an American character actress best remembered for her role as Aunt Harriet Cooper on "Batman" from 1966-1968. Madge Blake's father, Albert Cummings, was a Methodist who discouraged her entry into acting. As such, she stayed out of acting until later in life. During World War II, she and her husband worked in Utah on construction of the detonator for the atomic bomb and performed such jobs as testing equipment destined for the Manhattan Project. Though she was five years his senior, she was a niece of actor Milburn Stone (Doc Adams on "Gunsmoke"). She took advantage of his influence to help her land acting roles. In the middle 1950s, she appeared on Rod Cameron's "City Detective" crime drama and in Ray Milland's sitcom, "Meet Mr. McNutley", renamed in the second season as "The Ray Milland Show". Blake also appeared in four episodes of the NBC sitcom "It's a Great Life", which aired from 1954-1956. In addition to her "Batman" role, Blake portrayed the baffled Margaret Mondello, mother of Larry Mondello (played by Rusty Stevens) on "Leave it to Beaver" in 1957, gushy gossip columnist Dora Bailey in "Singin' in the Rain" in 1952, and was a model for one of the fairies in Disney's animated version of "Sleeping Beauty" in 1959. In 1961, she guest starred in the episode "A View of Murder" of the crime drama "The Brothers Brannagan". Blake portrayed the role of Flora McMichael, a romantic interest to Walter Brennan's Grandpa Amos McCoy in "The Real McCoys", a popular 1950s and 1960s situation comedy about a West Virginia mountain family that relocated to southern California. Prior to her role in "Batman", she appeared in the pilot episode of "The Addams Family" (broadcast in the U.S in September 1964) as Miss Comstock, an official from the Addams' children's school. Blake also appeared in a memorable episode of "I Love Lucy" in 1957 with George Reeves guest-starring as Superman. Declining health saw her role as Aunt Harriet reduced, and with the introduction of Batgirl in the third and final season of "Batman", she only appeared in two episodes that season as a guest role. She was admitted to a hospital after falling at home and fracturing her ankle. She died in 1969 at the age of 69 in the hospital from a heart attack, not long after Batman was cancelled.
MADGE BLAKE FILMOGRAPHY
Singin in the Rain (1952)
The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
Rhapsody (1954)
Fireman Save My Child (1954)
The Tender Trap (1955)
It s Always Fair Weather (1955)
The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956)
Loving You (1957)
Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
Sergeants 3 (1962)
Follow Me, Boys! (1966)
Batman: The Movie (1966)
Starring Bette Davis, Jim Davis, Janis Paige, Woody Herman, John Hoyt, and Florence Bates. Directed by Bertaigne Windust. A disenchanted poet meets a disillusioned war hero and invites him back to her apartment for a nightcap. Drawn to one another, these two lost souls fall in love while discussing their inner demons.
Starring Bette Davis, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Sig Ruman, and Ian Wolfe. Directed by Irving Rapper. A research psychologist escapes from Budapest after the nature of his work is discovered and resettles in Scotland where he resumes his work. He eventually marries his female assistant but she dies in a fire trying to protect his valuable notes. The doctor dedicates the rest of his work to her memory and heads to China to work as a medical missionary.
Starring Claudette Colbert, Macdonald Carey, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Wagner, Zachary Scott, Frank Cady, Kathleen Freeman, and Barbara Bates. Directed by Richard Sale. The daughter of a long-married couple who have decided to divorce hopes to bring her parents back together, which proves to be a difficult proposition when the wife's old flame, now a millionaire, arrives back in town.
Starring William Holden, Frances Dee, Margaret Hamn, Anne Revere, Grant Mitchell, and Dick Elliott. Directed by Alfred E. Green. A wealthy socialite falls in love with a young man and agrees to marry him on his terms - that they survive on his salary alone.
Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Henry Travers, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Beulah Bondi, H.B. Warner, Gloria Grahame, Ellen Corby, Charles Lane, Frank Faylen, and Mary Treen. Directed by Frank Capra. On Christmas Eve a businessman who has long consid himself a failure faces financial ruin and is seriously contemplating suicide.
