GOODBYE TO EVERYONE'S 'BUDDY' LOVED ONES HONOR ACTOR'S MEMORY.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Actor, singer and dancer Buddy Ebsen was remembered Saturday as a consummate professional and a beloved teacher, mentor and friend.

More than 600 people filled the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood Saturday afternoon for an emotion-filled ``Life Celebration'' for the actor best known for his role as Jed Clampett in the TV sitcom ``The Beverly Hillbillies.''

Max Baer Jr., who played his dim but lovable nephew Jethro in the series, recalled how Ebsen would call him years later and always say, ``Jethro, it's your Uncle Jed,'' instead of calling him by his real name.

``My grandfather told my father, and my father told me, 'If, when you die, you can hold up two fingers and say you've had two friends, your life is a success,''' Baer said, breaking into tears.

``I've lost one. I love you, Uncle Jed.''

Ebsen, who died at age 95 on July 6, had a 75-year career that spanned everything from tap dancing on Broadway with his sister, Vilma, and acting opposite Audrey Hepburn in the film ``Breakfast at Tiffany's,'' to roles on television that included Jed Clampett as well as the milk-loving sleuth in ``Barnaby Jones.''

Both Baer and Lee Meriwether, the former Miss America who played Ebsen's daughter-in-law on ``Barnaby Jones,'' recalled how Ebsen would insist in performing his off-camera lines himself, so that the on-camera actor could react to the real thing.

Ebsen even insisted on donning his jacket - in sweltering heat - so he would look the same as he had when he was on camera.

Meriwether recalled that Ebsen tried to teach her to dance, ``and he loved to tell everyone that I was a lost cause.'' What Ebsen didn't know, she said, was ``I didn't learn it on purpose so he would keep teaching me.''

Actor Dick Van Dyke, who hosted a standing-room-only event that included Donna Douglas, who played Elly May on ``The Beverly Hillbillies,'' talked of Ebsen's great ``aura of serenity.''

When he was 10, Van Dyke recalled, he sat in a movie house green with envy, watching the young Ebsen tap dance with Shirley Temple in the movie musical ``Captain January.''

``I want to do that,'' Van Dyke remembered saying. ``Everybody in that theater was smiling. Buddy seemed to be in heaven doing what he did.''

Fess Parker, who starred in two 1950s Disney films as Davy Crockett to Ebsen's George Russel, recalled the day 49 years ago when Walt Disney introduced him to Ebsen saying, `` 'This is Buddy Ebsen; he's going to play your friend' - we became friends very quickly.''

Ebsen also was a prodigious artist. In addition to being a painter, poet and composer, he created eight musicals and wrote several books, including the novel ``Kelly's Quest,'' a book about sailing and his autobiography, ``The Other Side of Oz.'' (Ebsen was briefly cast as the Tin Man in 1939's ``The Wizard of Oz,'' but had to drop out because of illness.)

``He had so many facets,'' said his wife, Dorothy, who married him in 1985. ``You could talk to him on any subject: he never told the same story twice.'

``I think he loved the public, he loved people,'' she added. ``Buddy saw the good part in everybody; he saw the beauty in everything.''

Rusty Frank, author of ``Tap,'' and her partner, Gregory Gast, performed a tap-dance tribute to Ebsen that included signature Ebsen moves such as the ``shim sham shimmy.''

Ebsen's daughter, Kiki Ebsen, sang a song her father wrote, ``Missing You,'' and charmed audience members by joking with them when the sound kept cutting out, forcing her to start over several times.

She received a standing ovation.

At the end of the tribute, Van Dyke read the ending passage of Ebsen's autobiography: ``Life's a brand-new ballgame every day! Remember that of all the elements that comprise a human being, the most important, the most essential, the one that will sustain, transcend, overcome and vanquish all obstacles is - Spirit!''

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Friends and colleagues wait to enter the auditorium at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Saturday to pay tribute to actor Buddy Ebsen, who died July 6.

pcred!John Lazar/Staff Photographer