William Edgar Buchanan II (March 20, 1903 – April 4, 1979) was an American actor with a long career in both film and television. He is most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s.
Biography Early life Edgar Buchanan was born to Rose (Kee) Buchanan and William Edgar Buchanan Sr., DDS in Humansville, Missouri. He moved with his family to Oregon when he was seven. , Matineeclassics.com; retrieved March 10, 2013. His father had a dental practice in Eugene, Oregon, and encouraged his son to follow suit. Buchanan Senior did not approve of his son's acting ambitions and pushed him to pursue dentistry instead. According to authors Arden and Joan Christen, Edgar's father believed "to choose a career in the theater was to settle for a life of mediocrity and uncertainty". Nevertheless, Edgar took courses in theater at the University of Oregon as a pre-med student, and was part of a Portland acting troupe in graduate school. He was also involved in the founding of the Portland Civic Theatre.
In 1928, Edgar earned his DDS degree from North Pacific College School of Dentistry in Portland, Oregon, which later became Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry. During his time there, he met his future wife, Mildred "Millie" Spence (1907–1987). They married in 1928 - the same year they both graduated with dental degrees. The couple adopted a son and named him William Edgar "Buck" Buchanan III.
Big changes came in 1939 when the family of three relocated their dental practice from Eugene, Oregon, to Altadena, California. There, Edgar joined the Pasadena Playhouse as an actor. Studio scouts spotted him performing at the playhouse and signed him into a seven-year deal in Hollywood. That same year, he appeared in his first film at age 36, and he left dentistry for good. Meanwhile, his wife, Dr. Millie Buchanan, DDS, took over the dental practice while also supporting her husband's new career as his talent manager.
Edgar was a member of Theta Chi fraternity and a Freemason.
Career Buchanan appeared in more than 100 films, including Texas (1941), in which he played a dentist and appeared with William Holden and Glenn Ford and later in Penny Serenade (1941) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942) with Ronald Colman, Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, The Man from Colorado (1948), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), Shane (1953), She Couldn't Say No (1954), Ride the High Country (1962) with Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, McLintock! (1963) with John Wayne, Move Over, Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner, and Benji (1974).
Among the many television series in which he was cast as a guest star were Cimarron City, The Californians, and The Rifleman. Edgar appeared in six episodes of The Rifleman, playing Grandpa Fogerty in "The Long Goodbye" (episode 119) and Doc Burrage in the other five: "The Pet" (episode 15), "The Second Witness" (episode 23), "The Trade" (episode 24), "The Deadly Wait" (episode 26), and "The Angry Man" (episode 31). In addition to several other widely varying roles on the series (running the gamut from sympathetic parts to vicious villains), he portrayed Jed Christianson in the episode "Duel at Sundown" on Maverick with James Garner and Clint Eastwood. He was on Leave It to Beaver (as both "Uncle Billy" and "Captain Jack"), The Twilight Zone, Riverboat (as Wingate Pardee in the 1960 episode, "Duel on the River"), Gunsmoke (in 1962 as the title character "Old Dan" - S7E18), Route 66, Bringing Up Buddy, Bus Stop, and The Lloyd Bridges Show.
Buchanan's roles as a regular cast member in television programs included Red Connors in the syndicated Western Hopalong Cassidy, and J.J. Jackson in the CBS crime drama Cade's County.
Buchanan appeared as Uncle Joe Carson in all 222 episodes of Petticoat Junction, the only actor from the show to do so, as well as in 17 episodes of Green Acres, and three episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. On Petticoat Junction, he took over as proprietor of the Shady Rest Hotel following the 1968 death of show star Bea Benaderet, who had played Kate Bradley; Buchanan had starred as second lead since the series' inception. In the 1966 episode "The All-Night Party" and in the 1969 episode "Kathy Jo's First Birthday Party", he appeared with his real-life son, Buck (who had a cameo as a party goer and an ice cream vendor, respectively). Another star from Petticoat Junction and he appeared together in the 1974 movie Benji; the other "star" was Higgins the dog, which portrayed the title character.
Buchanan appeared in multiple episodes of Tales of Wells Fargo, starring Dale Robertson, appearing sporadically from 1957 to 1961. He had the recurring role of a rascally ex-outlaw and occasional dentist named Doc Dawson.
In 1967, Dot Records released "Phantom 309" (Dot #17047), a narration by Buchanan. The 45-rpm single was backed with "Cotton Picker".
Death Buchanan died from a stroke complicated by pneumonia in Palm Desert, California, in 1979. He was interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1939 My Son Is Guilty Dan, Bartender 1940 Too Many Husbands Detective Adolph McDermott Three Cheers for the Irish Party Guest Uncredited Tear Gas Squad Cousin Andy, a Policeman Escape to Glory Charles Atterbee The Sea Hawk Ben Rollins Uncredited When the Daltons Rode Narrator / Old-timer Uncredited Arizona Judge Bogardus 1941 Penny Serenade Applejack Carney Her First Beau Elmer Tuttle The Richest Man in Town Pete Martin Texas Buford "Doc" Thorpe You Belong to Me Billings, Groundskeeper 1942 Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die Curly Bill Brocious The Talk of the Town Sam Yates 1943 City Without Men Michael T. Mallory The Desperadoes Uncle Willie McLeod Good Luck, Mr. Yates Jonesey Jones Destroyer Kansas Jackson 1944 Buffalo Bill Sergeant Chips McGraw Bride by Mistake Jonathan Connors The Impatient Years Judge Strange Affair Lieutenant Washburn 1946 The Fighting Guardsman Pepe, bandit-valet Abilene Town Sheriff 'Bravo' Trimble The Bandit of Sherwood Forest Friar Tuck Perilous Holiday George Richards The Walls Came Tumbling Down Reverend George Bradford Renegades Kirk Dembrow If I'm Lucky Darius J. Magonnagle 1947 The Sea of Grass Jeff Framed Jeff Cunningham 1948 The Swordsman Angus MacArden The Wreck of the Hesperus George Lockhart The Black Arrow Lawless Adventures in Silverado Dr. Henderson, aka The Monk Best Man Wins Jim Smiley Coroner Creek Sheriff O'Hea The Untamed Breed John Rambeau The Man from Colorado Doc Merroan 1949 The Walking Hills Old Willy Red Canyon Jonah Johnson Lust for Gold Wiser Any Number Can Play Ed 1950 Cheaper by the Dozen Dr. Burton Cargo to Capetown Sam Bennett The Big Hangover Uncle Fred Mahoney Devil's Doorway Zeke Carmody 1951 The Great Missouri Raid Dr. Samuels Rawhide Sam Todd Cave of Outlaws Dobbs Silver City Dutch Surrency 1952 The Big Trees Walter 'Yukon' Burns Flaming Feather Sergeant O'Rourke Wild Stallion John Wintergreen Toughest Man in Arizona Jim Hadlock She Couldn't Say No Ed Meeker 1953 The War of the Worlds Square Dance Musician Uncredited It Happens Every Thursday Jake Shane Fred Lewis 1954 Make Haste to Live Sheriff Lafe Human Desire Alec Simmons Dawn at Socorro Sheriff Cauthen Destry The Honorable Hiram J. Sellers, Mayor 1955 Rage at Dawn Judge The Silver Star Will "Bill" Dowdy The Lonesome Trail Dan Wells Wichita Doc Black 1956 Come Next Spring Mr. Canary 1957 Spoilers of the Forest Tom Duncan 1958 Day of the Bad Man Sam Wyckoff The Sheepman Milt Masters 1959 King of the Wild Stallions Idaho It Started with a Kiss Congressman Richard Tappe Edge of Eternity Sheriff Edwards Hound-Dog Man Doc Cole Stump Run Buck Gaskin 1960 Four Fast Guns Dipper Cimarron Judge Neal Hefner Chartroose Caboose Woody Watts 1961 Tammy Tell Me True Judge Carver Devil's Partner Don Lucas The Comancheros Judge Thaddeus Jackson Breen 1962 Ride the High Country Judge Tolliver 1963 Donovan's Reef Boston Attorney Francis X. O'Brien A Ticklish Affair Captain Martin McLintock! Bunny Dull Move Over, Darling Judge Bryson 1965 The Rounders Vince Moore The Man from Button Willow Sorry Voice 1966 Gunpoint Bull 1967 Welcome to Hard Times Brown 1969 Angel in My Pocket Axel Gresham 1974 Benji Bill (final film role)
Television