Frank Cady
Birth : 1915-09-08, Susanville, California, USA
Death : 2012-06-08
History
Although Frank Cady's most famous role would be that of general-store owner Sam Drucker, one of the less nutty residents of Hooterville in both Green Acres (1965) and Petticoat Junction (1963), he had a history as a film, stage and television actor long before those shows. Cady also appeared on some radio programs including Gunsmoke.
In the 1950s, Cady played Doc Williams in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), along with numerous supporting parts in movies and also appeared in television commercials for (among other products) Shasta Grape Soda. Cady has been most prolific in television and was the only actor to play a recurring character on three TV sitcoms at the same time, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Green Acres (1965), and Petticoat Junction (1963). Usually cast as a gregarious small-town businessman, druggist, store clerk or other type of all-around Midwestern-type good guy, Cady was actually a California native, born in Susanville in 1915.
The acting bug bit him when he sang in an elementary school play, and after graduating from Stanford University he headed to London, England, to train in the theater.
When World War II broke out he was already in Europe, so he enlisted in the Army Air Force and spent the next several years in postings all over the continent. After his discharge he returned to the US and headed for Hollywood.
An agent saw him in a local play, signed him, and he was on his way. One of his earlier--and more atypical--roles was as a seedy underworld character pulled in for questioning in a cop's murder in the noir classic He Walked by Night (1948), and he played a succession of hotel clerks, bureaucrats, henpecked husbands and the like for the next 40+ years. He did much television work from the mid-'50s onward.
Cady resided in Wilsonville, Oregon and at the time of his death had two children, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Self
Documentary and interviews with the cast of Petticoat Junction and stories of the show's production.
Sam Drucker
Tv movie that reunites most the show's cast members. The Douglases move back to New York. But when Haney tries to get everyone's property so that a developer can build on them, the residents go to New York to get Douglas to help them. But he's a little hesitant.
Mr. Sutter
On the day of the Halloween party, Soup and Rob are finding plenty of ways to get into trouble: swimming in a local pond (though their mothers prohibit swimming so late in the year), pitching apples over a barn, and borrowing a cart which had drifted away from its owner. The grandest mischief of all, however, comes from their attempt to win the prize at the Halloween party, given to the entrant with the largest pumpkin.
Pa Tater
Naive Iowa farm boy Lewis Tater dreams of being a famous Western novelist like his hero, Zane Grey. He leaves home to answer a writing correspondence course's ad for on-campus classes, only to discover that the school consists of a row of postboxes at an isolated Nevada train depot. On the run from the con men responsible, Lewis stumbles across "real" cowboys--cowboy actors shooting a movie in the desert. The would-be writer soon finds himself instead acting in Westerns, for the rundown Tumbleweed Productions studio, in Depression-era Hollywood.
Pa Allan
Zandy Allan purchases a mail-order bride, Hannah Lund. He treats her as a possession, without respect or humanity, until their shared ordeal as they struggle to survive develops in him a growing love.
Assayer
Professor Dooley takes home a duck from his research laboratory as a toy for his son, but soon finds out that it lays golden eggs.
Mayor James Sargent
An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
John Milstead
A film director turns his actress wife into a star, leading to marital problems.
Pop
Dodie dreams of marrying a millionaire so that she can live 'the life'. Buzz, her boyfriend, however, is not rich as he is a salesman for a housing development. He proposes and Dodie accepts. Dodie next meets Pete, who she thinks is rich, but she soon finds out that he is just a boat mechanic. They have fun on their date and Pete proposes and Dodie accepts. Then Dodie meets Neil Patterson who is rich. They go to Mexico on his yacht and have fun on their date. Neil proposes and Dodie accepts. Now she has to choose.
Willie Poole
Byron Turner, a 15-year-old runaway from the Eatondale Orphan Asylum, receives a ride into the rural Missouri town of Delphi with rich land-owner Tobias Brown.
Abe Pickett (uncredited)
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge.
Doctor
A rancher, his shady bride and his one-armed brother fight amid carpetbaggers in Texas.
Henry Daigle
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, dote on their daughter, Rhoda -- as does their lonely landlady, Monica Breedlove. But self-centered Rhoda has a secret tendency for selfishness and loves to accumulate gifts, whether given or stolen, in her room. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.
Trader Joe
A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.
Man on Fire Escape (uncredited)
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Mr. Watts
A man moves his family from the big city to the suburbs.
Bennie Amboy
A small-town newspaper editor risks everything to expose a corrupt sheriff.
F.B.I. Agent George Weinberg
Spies hold the son of a nuclear physicist (Gene Barry) hostage in exchange for the Los Alamos bomb formula.
Ferguson
A woman divorces her husband of 20 years because he gambles too much.
Harold Ferris
When a group of astronomers calculate a star is on a course to slam into Earth, a few days before, it's accompanying planet will first pass close enough to the Earth to cause havoc on land and sea. They set about building a rocket so a few selected individuals can escape to the planet.
Mr. Federber
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.
Parole Officer Creavy
Mirian Wilkins, the teenage daughter of Senator Wilkins, starts a Society for the Rehabilitation of Criminals and, without the approval or knowledge of her father, elects him to the position of honorary president. When the family's new gardener, Baxter, turns out to be a notorious ex-convict who was sentenced to prison by Senator Wilkins when he was a judge, Wilkins considers firing him until his daughter points out that would be an unwise decision considering the position her father held on society.
Gas Station Man
Sent to a dude ranch in the west to recover her health, a New York actress falls in love with a ranch owner recently acquitted of the murder of his wife.
Showbox Puppeteer (uncredited)
A lawyer uncovers secrets behind a 12-year-old murder case.
Harry (uncredited)
Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.
Max Henry
A doctor testing drugs on convicts gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Elevator Operator (uncredited)
When a recently deceased playboy gets to heaven and is granted one wish--granted to all newcomers--he requests that he be able to see the reactions of three husbands, with whom he regularly played poker, to a letter he left each of them claiming to have had an affair with each's wife.
Fred Backett (uncredited)
A killer holds the customers at a bar hostage.
Janitor (uncredited)
A young woman living in Manhattan pretends to be the mother of an infant in order to get a seat on the subway.
Eddie (uncredited)
A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.
Bald Plant Worker in Locker Room (uncredited)
The Next Voice You Hear... (1950) is a drama film in which a voice claiming to be that of God preempts all radio programs for days all over the world. It stars James Whitmore and Nancy Davis as Joe and Mary Smith, a typical American couple. It was based on a short story of the same name by George Sumner Albee.
Timid Engagement Party Guest (uncredited)
Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.
Night Clerk (uncredited)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Frank Bigelow is about to die, and he knows it. The accountant has been poisoned and has only 24 hours before the lethal concoction kills him. Determined to find out who his murderer is, Frank, with the help of his assistant and girlfriend, Paula, begins to trace back over his last steps. As he frantically tries to unravel the mystery behind his own impending demise, his sleuthing leads him to a group of crooked businessmen and another murder.
Geologist (uncredited)
Romance at a murder trial with a pair of sequestered jurors who are the only ones who think that the woman in the dock is innocent. Separated from their normal lives, jurors Terry Scott and David Campbell start to fall in love.
Mr. Taney - Tax Investigator
Shortly before Christmas, a family moves into an apartment where Rupert the squirrel lives in the attic rafters. Just as it seems that the holiday will come and go without so much as a Christmas tree, Rupert acts as the family's guardian angel - not only saving Christmas, but changing their lives forever.
Reporter (uncredited)
Catherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's presumed murdered, his friend Martha convinces him that he's a prime suspect and should investigate before he's arrested.
Oculist (uncredited)
A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Tom Hill (uncredited)
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Pete Hammond
This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.
Gus Barton
In this detective drama, a gumshoe must find a priceless hunk of jade. His several leads evaporate when the police succeed in killing all of the suspects.
Skinner
A psychiatrist tries to help a patient who loses consciousness after he kills someone. When the doctor provides the patient with a letter that explains his problem, he inadvertently implicates himself in the crimes.
Prof. Edwards
A Marine Sergeant, wounded in overseas service, requires an operation, and the Navy psychiatrist recommends to the Captain and Colonel that "Sarge" be given a few weeks rest before hospitalization. Through the Dean of San Juan Junior College, Sarge enters the school on a temporary basis.
