Donna Douglas, who played the ditsy Elly May Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” died Friday at her home in Zachary, La., according to a report by CBS affiliate WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, La. She was 81.
Douglas starred as the naive only daughter of the oil-rich Clampett clan in the CBS sitcom that ran from 1962 to 1971. Buddy Ebsen played patriarch Jed Clampett, who moves his family from the Ozarks to Beverly Hills after stumbling into oil riches.
Douglas’ Elly May was known for her love of all kinds of “critters,” as well as for her shapely figure, form-fitting jeans and cascade of blond curls. The actress was a series regular throughout the run of the top-rated show, which was the first in a triptych of corny countrified sitcoms from creator Paul Henning that included “Petticoat Junction” and “Green Acres.”
Elly May’s love of “critters” was inspired by Douglas’ real-life affection for animals, having grown up on her grandparents’ farm in rural Louisiana.
As a teenager, Douglas moved into acting after winning several beauty pageants in her home state. She was crowned Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans in 1957, according to WAFB. She moved to New York to pursue acting and landed work as a model, in TV commercials and finally bit parts on “The Perry Como Show” and “The Steve Allen Show.”
Douglas logged a slew of TV guest shots in the late 1950s and early ’60s before landing on “Beverly Hillbillies.” She did everything from “Bachelor Father” to “Route 66” and “77 Sunset Strip” to two episodes of “The Twilight Zone.”
The first of those was the standout “Eye of the Beholder,” a commentary on conformity and ideals of beauty. Douglas’ face was covered in bandages for most of the episode until she is revealed at the end as despondent because her latest medical treatment did not give her the pig-like snout and other disfigurements considered attractive in the fantasy realm of the episode penned by series creator Rod Serling.
During the run of “Hillbillies,” Douglas had a guest shot on the gritty CBS legal drama “The Defenders.” She co-starred with Elvis Presley in the 1966 pic “Frankie and Johnny.”
After “Hillbillies” ended, Douglas guested on another Serling series, “Night Gallery,” and was seen in episodes of “McMillan and Wife,” “Love, American Style,” “Adam-12” and “Project UFO.”
But her acting career was on the wane by the mid-1970s. She turned her focus to music and the Christian media marketplace, recording several gospel albums and writing children’s books.
In recent decades she was mostly seen onscreen in “Beverly Hillbillies” revival projects, including 1981 telepic “The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies,” and in vintage TV retrospectives and events. She made an appearance as herself on the CBS’ sitcom “The Nanny” in 1999.
Donna Douglas, who played hillbilly bombshell Elly May Clampett on the baby-boomer-beloved 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, has died. She was 82.
Charlene Smith, her niece-in-law, confirmed Friday to USA TODAY that she died of pancreatic cancer on New Year's Day at Baton Rouge General Hospital, near her home in Zachary, La.
The Baton Rouge paper, The Advocate and other media outlets, including local TV station WAFB , also confirmed her death, although most put her age at 81.
"She was 82," Smith said firmly, adding jokingly, "She's going to haunt me for that."
Douglas' death leaves only one member of the show's original cast still alive: Max Baer Jr., who played Elly May's cousin, Jethro. He is 77.
"She was Elly May until the day she died," Baer told the website RumorFix. "When I saw her for autograph signings or other gatherings, she always dressed the same with pink or blue" and of course those signature pigtails."
He said he last saw Douglas in January 2013 for an autograph signing in Los Angeles. He said she had pancreatic cancer for the last months of her life.
"But she was a very private person — nothing like me." A friend told him Donna had a message for him: "Tell Maxie I thought I was going to get better."
Smith described Douglas as a "very good Christian lady. We all loved her," she said. "Whenever she gave presents, they always came with (passages) from Scripture."
Douglas, a former Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans, was born in Pride, La., and returned to live in Zachary, after her time in Hollywood, to be near her only child, son Danny Bourgeois. She is survived by him, by three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, one brother and other extended family members, Smith said.
She was married and divorced twice, including the second time, to The Beverly Hillbillies director, Robert Leeds.
Smith said the family plans a private funeral.
Douglas grew up in Pride and attended a local Catholic high school, where she played softball and basketball, and was a member of the school's first graduating class.
But she'll always be known as Elly May — the tomboy-but-sweetly sexy blond Clampett daughter who never seemed to be aware of her effect on men, and who referred to their Beverly Hills mansion swimming pool as the "SEE-ment pond."
In many ways, she was Elly May, with her own real-life rags-to-riches story.
"Oh, yeah, it was just like a slice out of my life," she told The Advocate in an interview a few years ago." I knew everything about Elly."
And she didn't mind the association, either. "So many kinds of people relate to Elly May," Douglas said, according to the Associated Press. "So many people love her, and that means a lot to me."
Douglas also will be remembered as co-starring opposite Elvis Presley in the 1966 film Frankie and Johnny, and for an especially creepy Twilight Zone episode, "The Eye of the Beholder."
The Beverly Hillbillies was a classic fish-out-of water comedy about a poor backwoods Ozark family transplanted to California after striking oil ("black gold" as the banjo-inflected theme song went) on their land.
Starring Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett (he died in 2003) and Irene Ryan (she died in 1973) as Granny, the show ran for nine years on CBS, from 1962 to 1971. It consistently ranked in the top most-watched programs on TV during its run, even though critics didn't care for it.
After Hillbillies ended, Douglas worked in real estate, recorded country and gospel music albums and wrote a book for children that drew on biblical themes.
In 2010 she sued CBS and toymaker Mattel seeking some of the proceeds from sales of a Barbie doll that used Elly May's name and likeness. The suit was settled in 2011.
To this day, many boomers can sing the theme song by heart. But even some non-boomers expressed appreciation on Twitter at the news of Douglas' death.