Which Beverly Hillbillies Cast Members Became Parents? Get To Know Their Kids

The CBS show "The Beverly Hillbillies" ended its nine-season run many decades ago. However, its one-liners, outfits, and iconic characters are still remembered today. The television sitcom followed the newly rich Clampett family and their country ways that they brought to their new home in Beverly Hills, California, after they struck black gold. As the sitcom's theme song goes, the family served up a heapin' helpin' of their signature hillbilly hospitality and hilarity each week. Eventually, some cast members became parents in real life, and in some ways, their families seemed to relate to the unique dynamics of the Clampetts. 

However, the family in "The Beverly Hillbillies" was not the typical American nuclear unit. The main Clampett family members included the patriarch, Jed Clampett; the feisty but entertaining Granny Moses; Jed's wise-cracking nephew, Jethro Bodine; and his daughter, the beautiful and naive Elly May Clampett. While some of the sitcom actors, like Jed's mother-in-law, played by actor Irene Ryan, only portrayed parents on the show, other castmates started families off-screen, many of whom did not fit the mold of a traditional American family in the suburbs with a white picket fence. Learn all about some of "The Beverly Hillbillies" castmates' kids.

Buddy Ebsen played the patriarch of the Clampett family in "The Beverly Hillbillies," one of the iconic '60s television dads who was also a father off-screen. What fans may not know about Ebsen is that he attributed much of the sitcom's success to audiences wanting a father figure — and, to his seven children, the actor was just that. Ebsen shared two daughters, Alix and Elizabeth Ebsen, with his first wife, Ruth Cambridge. Later, he welcomed  Susannah "Susie," Catherine, Bonnie, Nancy Kiersten "Kiki," and Dustin Ebsen with his second wife, Nancy Wolcott. 

The actor's seven kids had a childhood somewhat similar to that of the Clampett family when they still lived in the Ozark Mountains. They were raised on a large ranch in Southern California, where they grew up riding horses out of the public eye. Ebsen's daughters were deeply influenced by horses — rather than Hollywood — throughout their lives. 

"The Beverly Hillbillies" actor's daughter, Kiki, competed in riding competitions growing up and carried her love of horses into adulthood. Kiki founded a horse sanctuary called The Healing Equine Ranch in 2007 in the same California mountains she rode through as a child, where people and rescued horses can bond through horseback riding, equine yoga, and therapy. Bonnie also founded T.H.E. Ranch, a horse ranch in Arizona in 2006. Cathy, on the other hand, bred and showed horses.

Although Buddy Ebsen tried to shield his kids from the fame his acting career brought, their lives still greatly differed from those of typical American children. In the mid-'70s, while Ebsen's other show "Barnaby Jones" was on a break from filming, the father of seven formed a musical group with some of his children. They toured across Southern California playing at various variety shows.

The sitcom actor's musically inclined kids performed in the band with their dad; Dustin played the drums while Kiki played the keyboard and sang alongside her dad and sister Bonnie. Two of "The Beverly Hillbillies" star's other daughters, Susie and Cathy, used their more analytic, logistical talents and worked behind the scenes on the family's variety show. Susie, who remained out of the public eye most of her life until her death in 2019, was the group's company manager, while Cathy helped with transportation during the troupe's touring days when she was not showing horses.

While most teenagers at the time were more likely to be performing at small venues for audiences around their own age, the Ebsen family's performances drew fans of all ages. The Ebsen troupe sang and danced their way from Sacramento to San Jose, and the teenagers' love of music never went away.

The phrase "like father, like daughter" applies not only to Buddy Ebsen's children's' love of horses but also to the early careers of his daughters Bonnie and Alix Ebsen. Bonnie became an actor like her dad and starred in various on-screen roles over the decades. She appeared in her father's other television show "Barnaby Jones" (1973) after "The Beverly Hillbillies" ended. Bonnie also had roles in other shows and movies, such as "The Fall Guy" in 1981 and the film "Black Magic Woman" a decade later. After Bonnie's unconventional life touring and acting as a teenager, she later made another major career move when she traded the screen for the page and became an author. 

Alix Ebsen also inherited her dad's artistic talents. However, unlike Bonnie and their famous father, Alix was only in one movie, "Silver City Bonanza" (1950s), when she was younger. Later, Alix opted for a more conventional life when she got married in 1971 and started a family. The mother of four now stays out of the spotlight and keeps her life private.

Two other Ebsen girls, Elizabeth and Susie, also lead private lives as adults. Unlike Bonnie and even Alix's one-time foray into acting, they did not enter the entertainment industry at all. 

Buddy Ebsen's sixth daughter, Kiki Ebsen, is not just a horse girl; she is just as artistically skilled outside the horse ring as her father. However, Kiki's talent lies in performing and singing on stage rather than acting. As a child, she occasionally joined her father in performances, and her love of music has continued throughout her life.

In 2015, Kiki and her brother, film editor and fellow musician Dustin Ebsen, co-produced and co-created a biographical cabaret show honoring the late actor: "To Dad with Love: A Tribute to Buddy Ebsen." Kiki used her musical talents to honor her late father's life in a unique tribute when more conventional families may simply have just held a memorial. The musical was performed over the next few years, and Kiki sang many of the songs associated with her dad's career. During the show, she shared songs, photos, and memories of Ebsen.

Kiki later shared her talents in another cabaret show for her father in 2023 called "My Buddy, The Other Side of Oz." She also created the "Kiki's Joni Mitchell Project," where she performs the iconic musician's songs. Kiki has continued to tour as a musician, performing in shows that have nothing to do with her father.

"The Beverly Hillbillies" actor Buddy Ebsen influenced his children in many ways beyond just inspiring a love of music and horses. After the show ended, the lives of many of the cast of "The Beverly Hillbillies" changed, but Ebsen remained a down-to-earth family man and continued to focus on his ranch. Typical families in California may practice fire safety and evacuation routes, but not many create a volunteer program like Ebsen and his daughter Cathy Ebsen did. 

After a devastating fire started by arson nearly destroyed the Ebsen family ranch and engulfed neighbors' homes in the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains, the actor who played Jed Clampett and his daughter Cathy created a volunteer fire watch group in 1982. The volunteer program called Arson Watch consists of local citizens who act as an early warning system against fires and work in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to detect fires when they start. The volunteer program still operates as of 2026, over four decades after Ebsen and Cathy's deaths. 

Cathy passed away in 2025, but her dedication to safety and community engagement left a unique, lasting contribution in the area where she was born and raised. "The Beverly Hillbillies" patriarch's only son, Dustin Ebsen, got involved as well and is a volunteer firefighter when he is not working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.

Actor Donna Douglas' life beyond "The Beverly Hillbillies" balanced acting and parenthood. Douglas' Elly May Clampett is a '60s character with iconic fashion: her signature blue jeans, plaid shirts, and pigtails with ribbons were her unofficial uniform on the show. As famous as her character in the sitcom became, the part was far from Douglas' only career-defining role. Fans of "The Beverly Hillbillies" know that Douglas starred in a movie with Elvis. 

Although she acted alongside one of the greatest rock 'n' roll legends of all time, her focus off-screen was being a mom to her only child, Danny Bourgeois. Douglas, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2015, shared her son with her husband, Roland Bourgeois Jr. Danny grew up in Louisiana, and his parents divorced in 1954, the same year he was born. Later in life, Douglas returned from Hollywood to Louisiana to live close to her child.

Unlike his famous mother, Danny preferred a much more private existence growing up and throughout adulthood. The son of "The Beverly Hillbillies" star did not pursue a career in acting; instead, he became a songwriter, a father of three, and a grandfather who leads a quiet, private life away from the public eye, just like he did growing up. 

In "The Beverly Hillbillies," actor Harriet MacGibbon played Mrs. Margaret Drysdale, the uptight, high-class neighbor and antithesis to the unrefined Clampett family. Although her character in the sitcom did not have children, in real life MacGibbon was a mother. The sitcom actor shared a son, William MacGibbon Kane Jr., with her first husband, producer William R. Kane. 

He was born in 1933 and grew up with divorced parents, a far more common, socially acceptable occurrence today than it was back then. Unlike his mother, Kane Jr. chose to pursue a career in academics rather than art. He was a post-Impressionist art historian and taught as a professor during his life. Sadly, the son of "The Beverly Hillbillies" actor passed away in 1977 before his mom, who died 10 years after her only child.

Not only was MacGibbon's career in the spotlight atypical of American mothers back then, but her family lineage is a unique one as well. The late actor was born in Chicago, Illinois, and her family, which has been traced back to the early 1800s, includes a prominent historical figure. The actor and her son descended from civil rights activist Dr. Elisha Deming, MacGibbon's great-grandfather, who helped enslaved people escape in Indiana as part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. While MacGibbon and her only son did not have as impactful a legacy as their ancestor, both still left marks on their world through acting and teaching.

Bea Benaderet played Cousin Pearl Bodine, Jed Clampett's cousin, on "The Beverly Hillbillies" before leaving to film the popular spin-off show "Petticoat Junction." In "The Beverly Hillbillies," her character was a mother to two children, Jethro and Jethrine Bodine, and Benaderet was a mother of two off-screen as well. Jethro and Jethrine were twins played by the same actor, Max Baer Jr., and the whole gag was that they were literally the same person. However, the actor's actual two children are far different from one another.

Born in 1940, Benaderet's only son, Jack Bannon, followed in his mother's footsteps, quite literally at first; he acted in episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction" with his mother before her death. He stayed in the entertainment industry, opting for a public life as an adult actor whose fame quickly grew just like his mother's did. In 1977, shortly after the show that made his mom famous ended, Bannon took his longest-running role as Art Donovan on the CBS show "Lou Grant."

Bannon was connected to Hollywood through both his job and his love life since he married John Travolta's sister, Ellen Travolta, and stayed with her until his death in 2017. Although both of Benaderet's children visited her on set growing up, only Jack continued a life in the spotlight. Born in 1947, Benaderet's daughter, Margaret "Maggie" Bannon, chose to lead a private life away from the acting business.

Actor Frank Wilcox may not have been in a lot of episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies," but the character he played in the sitcom, Mr. Brewster, was important to the plot of the show. Mr. Brewster was the oil executive from the OK Oil Company who bought the Clampett land and turned the family into multi-millionaires. 

The actor's previous professional life was actually surprisingly similar to that of Mr. Brewster's. Wilcox had worked in sales at an oil company for a time before joining the entertainment industry and becoming a freelance actor. However, Wilcox's personal life differed from his character. The businessman was childless and almost married Cousin Pearl Bodine in the show, but in real life, Wilcox was married to Joy Langston Wilcox until he passed away in 1974. 

"The Beverly Hillbillies" actor and his wife shared three daughters: Linda Susan Wilcox, Judith Ann Wilcox, and the youngest daughter, Elizabeth Joy Wilcox, and raised them in the country away from the limelight of Hollywood. The three Wilcox girls continued to live private lives as adults rather than go into the entertainment industry like their father, and none of their professions or love lives have ever been made public.