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Pat Buttram

 
Actor: Pat Buttram
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jun 19, 1915 in Addison AL
  • Died: Jan 08, 1994 in Los Angeles, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '50s-'70s
  • Major Genres: Western, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Riders in the Sky, Green Acres, Gene Autry and the Mounties
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Strawberry Roan (1948)

Biography

The son of a circuit-riding Methodist minister, American actor Pat Buttram led a hand-to-mouth existence as a child. He managed to get a scholarship to study theology at Birmingham Southern College, where amateur theatricals captured his enthusiasm. Buttram's first professional job was as a morning announcer at a Birmingham station, bringing home a lofty six dollars per week. Heading for Chicago to see the 1933 World's Fair, Buttram began picking up comedy relief work on radio station WLS's National Barn Dance, where he worked with such stars-to-be as Homer & Jethro and teenaged George Gobel (who would later cite Buttram as his principal comic influence). One of the Barn Dance headliners was singing cowboy Gene Autry, and when Autry inaugurated his starring radio series Melody Ranch in the 1940s, Buttram came aboard as comedy relief. Together, Autry and Buttram would make several pictures at both Republic and Columbia studios (Buttram's first was The Strawberry Roan [1948]); the two also co-starred on Autry's TV show, which ran for 91 episodes in the early '50s. Fast friends but not bosom buddies, Autry and Buttram became a little closer in 1950 when Pat was severely injured in an on-set accident and Gene gave him the encouragement to hang in there even when the doctors had given up hope. Autry retired from acting a multimillionaire in 1956; Buttram, while well off, still had to keep working, so after vetoing the notion of hitting the nightclub trail, he became an immensely popular after-dinner speaker at show-business functions. His subsequent TV roles were in a comical vein, but Buttram made an excellent impression in a feverishly dramatic part in "The Jar," one of the eeriest episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. In 1965, Buttram was cast as duplicitous peddler Mr. Haney on Green Acres, and for the next five seasons kept audiences in stitches as he sold "Mis-ter Douglas" (Eddie Albert) one useless item after another, delivering his laconic sales pitch in his inimitable singsong voice. Off-camera, Buttram was a successful rancher and stock market speculator, as well as a Civil War buff; he was happily married for many years to one-time Western leading lady Sheila Ryan, who left Pat a widower in 1975. Semi-retired by the 1980s, Pat Buttram made a few welcome appearances on TV (guesting on a Green Acres retrospective special on cable television, and providing a voice for the cartoon series Garfield and Friends) and movies (Back to the Future III [1989]). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Pat Buttram
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Pat Buttram
Born Maxwell Emmett Buttram
June 19, 1915
Addison, Alabama
Died January 8, 1994 (aged 78)
Los Angeles, California
Occupation Film, voice actor
Years active 1948–1994
Spouse(s) Sheila Ryan (1952–1975) (her death)

Emmett Maxwell "Pat" Buttram (June 19, 1915 – January 8, 1994) was an American actor, best known for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry and the character of Mr. Haney in the TV series Green Acres. He had a distinctive voice which, in his own words, "... never quite made it through puberty. It has been described as sounding like a handful of gravel thrown in a Mix-Master."

Contents

Biography

Buttram was born in the little town of Addison, in Winston County, Alabama, to Wilson McDaniel Buttram, a Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Emmett Maxwell. He had an older brother named Augustus McDaniel Buttram, as well as five other elder siblings. When "Pat" Buttram was a year old, his father was transferred to Nauvoo, Alabama. Buttram graduated from high school in Jefferson County, then entered Birmingham Southern College to study for the ministry. He performed in college plays and on a local radio station, before he became a regular on the "WLS National Barn Dance" in Chicago.[1]

Buttram went to Hollywood in the 1940s to become a "sidekick" to Roy Rogers. However, since Rogers already had two regulars, Buttram was soon dropped. He was then picked by Gene Autry, recently returned from his World War II service in the Army Air Force, to work with him. Buttram would co-star with Gene Autry in more than 40 films, and in over 100 episodes of Autry's television show.[2]

Film and Television career

Buttram's first Autry film was Strawberry Roan in 1948. In the late 1940s, Buttram joined Autry on his radio show, Melody Ranch and then on television with The Gene Autry Show. During the first TV season, Buttram went by "Pat" or "Patrick", with a variety of last names. From the second season on, he used his own name.

Buttram also is known for his role as "Mr. Haney" in the 1965–1971 television comedy Green Acres. He did voice work for several Disney animated features, playing Napoleon (hound dog) in The Aristocats, the Sheriff of Nottingham (a wolf) in Robin Hood, Luke (swamp inhabitant) in The Rescuers, Chief (hunting dog) in The Fox and the Hound, and one of the Toon bullets in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Buttram had a recurring role as the voice of Cactus Jake on Garfield and Friends. In Alfred Hitchcock's films, he played a farmer who bought a jar from a sideshow, the contents of which frightened his wife and mesmerized his friends. One of his last roles was a cameo in Back to the Future Part III. His final voice-over role was in A Goofy Movie, released a year after his death.

Buttram made the oft-quoted observation about the 1971 TV rural purge: "CBS canceled everything with a tree — including Lassie.[3][4]

In 1952 Buttram had married actress Sheila Ryan. They remained married until her death in 1975. He retired from acting in 1980, and made his home in Winston County, Alabama. However, he soon returned to California, where he made frequent personal appearances.

Pat Buttram died of kidney failure in Los Angeles, California in 1994 at the age of 78. He was buried in the cemetery at Maxwell Chapel in Haleyville, Alabama.[5]

Buttram has been honored by a star on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame" and also by a star on the "Alabama Stars of Fame" in Birmingham, Alabama.

Popular culture

  • Pat Buttram's distinctive voice made him the target of several impressionists, especially cartoon voice actors.
  • The Animaniacs cartoon The Warners and the Beanstalk, a parody of the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, featured a caricature of Mr. Haney as the "Used Cow Salesman".
  • Pat Buttram is credited as one of the writers on the Hee Haw television show in its early years.
  • In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 1001, featuring the film, Soultaker, TV's Frank, after having been in "Second-Banana Heaven," returns as a soul-taker. As he recollects his time in "Second-Banana Heaven," he remarks, "Pat Buttram had it out for me from the beginning!"

References

  1. ^ http://wcgs.ala.nu/patbuttram.htm
  2. ^ http://wcgs.ala.nu/patbuttram.htm
  3. ^ Quotation taken from amazon.com preview of book accessed March 23, 2009. Harkins, Anthony (2005). Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon. Oxford University Press US. p. 203. ISBN 0195189507. 
  4. ^ Lassie actually ran until 1973.
  5. ^ http://wcgs.ala.nu/patbuttram.htm

Further reading

  • Pat Buttram, the Rocking Chair Humorist, by Sandra Grabman. BearManor Media, Boalsburg, 2006. ISBN 1-59393-067-4.

External links


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