Donna Douglas, Elly May on “The Beverly Hillbillies”, Opened up on Relation with Buddy Ebsen Before Passing

Donna Douglas played the charming, beloved character of Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. The nine years she spent on the show didn’t only lead to fame – but also brought her love and friendships for life.

From being a quiet southern girl to one of TV’s most recognizable faces, she did it all.

Donna Douglas was born Donna Ione Smith on Sept 26, 1932 in Pride, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

As a kid, she had no interest or thoughts towards pursuing a career in acting. At St. Gerard Catholic High School she played softball and basketball, later going on to study at Rhema Bible Training Center in Oklahoma.

Donna Douglas

After Douglas had graduated high school, she planned on simply taking big steps towards adulthood. Speaking to the Lincoln Times News, she described herself as being both naive and idealistic at this time. She got married to Roland Bourgeois at age 16 and had a son, Danny P. Bourgeois, by age 21. However, Donna later divorced her husband and decided to start modeling and acting.

She was crowned “Miss Baton Rouge” and “Miss New Orleans” in 1957, which opened up a whole new world for her. On the back of that success, she decided to move to New York, landing her first gig in show business as a print-ad model for a toothpaste advertising.

Moving to New York was a huge thing for Donna Douglas. She came from a small community, one where big city lights and cars weren’t common.

“I had never been away from home,” she said. “I grew up poor. My parents didn’t have a car. I never had a background for show business.”

She recalled one specific moment before her flight to New York when a man at the airport in New Orleans asked if she wanted to change her reservation so that she could get to New York earlier.

“I didn’t even know they had two airports in New York,” she said laughing.

Moving to New York

Now, as we’ve mentioned, Donna never had any plans to become an actress. It just happened to be a decision she made that would lead to her into starring in a huge success series, The Beverly Hillbillies.

Beloved comedy show The Beverly Hillbillies followed the life of the Clampett family, with Jed Clampett, the family dad played by Buddy Ebsen, finding himself becoming insanely rich overnight.

In the show, when the fictional Jed suddenly earns millions in the oil business, he decides to move to Beverly Hills, California, along with his family. The problem is, he and his family still maintain the hillbilly way of living, turning the show into a comedy the likes of which had scarcely been seen before.

The Beverly Hillbillies aired for the first time in 1962, and it was a huge success. It rose to the No. 1 spot within three weeks of the first episode airing, according to IMDB; faster than any series in history.

The audience absolutely loved the show during the 11 years it ran. All told, there were a total of nine seasons and 274 episodes filmed before it was cancelled in 1971.