Buddy Ebsen

Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr., known professionally as Buddy Ebsen, was born on April 2, 1908, in Belleville, Illinois, and died on July 6, 2003. He was an American actor and dancer who built a career spanning Broadway, film, and television over several decades.

Ebsen was the middle child in a family of five children, with four sisters. His father, Christian Ludolf Ebsen Sr., had been born in Niebüll, Germany in 1872 and emigrated to the United States in 1888, eventually working as a choreographer and physical fitness advocate who owned a dance studio and operated a swimming pool for a local school district. His mother, Frances, née Wendt, was a Baltic German painter of Latvian origin. The family relocated from Belleville to Palm Beach County, Florida when Ebsen was ten, and then to Orlando, Florida in 1920, where he and his sisters trained in dance at his father's studio. Ebsen graduated from Orlando High School in 1926 and pursued an interest in medicine, attending the University of Florida from 1926 to 1927 and Rollins College from 1927 to 1928, before the collapse of the Florida land boom created financial difficulties that forced him to leave college at age twenty.

In the summer of 1928, Ebsen departed Orlando for New York City, arriving with $26.75 and initially working at a soda fountain. He and his sister Vilma performed together as a dance act in supper clubs and vaudeville, billed as "The Baby Astaires." A favorable notice from columnist Walter Winchell, who caught their act in Atlantic City, New Jersey, led to a booking at the Palace Theatre in New York City. The siblings appeared together on Broadway in Flying Colors and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934. Ebsen's Broadway career, which ran from 1928 to 1946, also included appearances in Show Boat, the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931, and a starring role in Yokel Boy.

During his high school years, Ebsen had joined the John M. Cheney Chapter of the Order of DeMolay. His involvement was recognized in adult life with the Legion of Honor Degree and, in 1996, with induction into the DeMolay Hall of Fame.

Ebsen's film career began with Broadway Melody of 1936, and he subsequently appeared in Born to Dance and Broadway Melody of 1938, in which Judy Garland was his dance partner. He danced alongside Shirley Temple in Captain January in 1936 and appeared in The Girl of the Golden West in 1938, partnering at various points with Eleanor Powell and Frances Langford. Walt Disney selected Ebsen to be filmed dancing in front of a grid as a reference for animating Mickey Mouse's dancing in the Silly Symphonies short films produced between 1929 and 1939.

After declining an exclusive MGM contract offered by Louis B. Mayer, Ebsen was nonetheless cast by MGM in The Wizard of Oz in 1939, initially as the Scarecrow. He subsequently exchanged roles with Ray Bolger, who had originally been cast as the Tin Man and preferred the Scarecrow role. Ebsen recorded his songs, attended rehearsals, and had begun filming as the Tin Man when he developed body aches, muscle cramps, and shortness of breath that required extended hospitalization. Doctors determined that aluminum dust in the Tin Man makeup was coating his lungs and preventing proper oxygenation of his blood, and he was removed from the production. He was replaced by Jack Haley, and the makeup formula was changed to an aluminum paste. MGM did not disclose the actual reason for Ebsen's departure, and Haley himself was not informed until much later. Haley re-recorded most of Ebsen's vocals, though Ebsen's Midwestern accent remains audible on the soundtrack during several reprises of "We're Off to See the Wizard." His recording of the Tin Man's solo "If I Only Had a Heart" was included on the deluxe edition of the film's soundtrack, and still photographs of Ebsen in the Tin Man costume have been included as supplementary material with home video releases of the film since 1989.

Following his recovery, Ebsen became involved in a contract dispute with MGM that left him inactive for extended periods. He took up sailing and developed sufficient expertise to teach seamanship to naval officer candidates. After multiple unsuccessful applications for a Navy commission in 1941, he was accepted by the United States Coast Guard and given the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. He served as damage control officer and later as executive officer aboard the Coast Guard-crewed Navy frigate USS Pocatello, which conducted weather station patrols approximately 1,500 miles west of Seattle on a cycle of thirty days at sea followed by ten days in port. He was honorably discharged from the Coast Guard as a lieutenant in 1946.

Ebsen appeared with Maureen O'Hara in They Met in Argentina in 1941 and with June Havoc in Sing Your Worries Away in 1942. In Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961, he portrayed Doc Golightly, the considerably older husband of Audrey Hepburn's character. His television debut came in 1949 on an episode of The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, after which he accumulated credits on numerous programs including Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Playhouse 90, Maverick, Bonanza, and 77 Sunset Strip. He received broad television exposure playing George Russell, a companion to frontiersman Davy Crockett based on a historical figure, in the Disneyland miniseries Davy Crockett, which aired in 1954 and 1955. Ebsen went on to star as Jed Clampett in the CBS sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies from 1962 to 1971 and subsequently in the title role of the television detective drama Barnaby Jones from 1973 to 1980.