Since I’m a self-taught blogger though the Will of GOD, I had no proper idea about drawing and things that are involved within it, I even had no idea that there’s something called doodle art, realizing only what a Google Doodle was when someone told me about and its what you see each day when you open your laptop. Then one day I got a message from a Facebook friend telling me “you’re a real doodler. “When I Googled “Doodler” I quickly realized its exactly what I’m doing and thought maybe that friend was just jealous that they don’t create time for what I do with my blog. However, I wouldn’t consider it a waste of time if your learning about self help and the rewards you gain from that. Some of the knowledge I have gain from my time researching cancer. Is that many times an untimely death of a close family member, friend
or sense of lost (over a job and retirement initiated the cancer) will never end.
Unless you change your outlook on the circumstances surrounding you!!!
Back in the late 60’s early 70’s it was so easy to get typed cast for Actors and Actress’ and break the pigeon hole of doing a television series. It was really sad to see Donna Douglas continued to be “Ellie Mae” even after the series ended. She kept the same Ellie Mae pigtails, hairstyle year after year decade after decade. She never seemed to let go of Ellie Mae. What a shame. She was so gorgeous; It was kind of scary. it’s too bad the only thing you’re known for is playing a little country bumpkin who only cared about one thing: critters.
Our Dear Irene Ryan Lived to the age of 70: Oct 17, 1902 – Apr 26, 1973 and did NOT die
during a performance. Nor did she finish her contract. Here’s the true story which I found on Broadwayworld.com, credited to John Rubinstein, who was starring in PIPPIN along with Ben Vereen, Jill Clayburgh, and Irene Ryan: Irene was lonely in New York City.
She missed her life and her friends in Los Angeles where she had lived for many years.
https://www.bing.com/videos/
search?q=does+Loneliness+and+
a+conflicted+life+lead+to+brain+cancer+&FORM=HDRSC3
In New York City the cold winter nights and the show schedule began to undermined her
spirit somewhat. But, being trouper that she was, she never missed a performance, however,
I started to notice she was beginning to look weak, or listless. I sat and watched her big number on stage every night, and I saw that she began to cut down on her moves, and to generally diminish the amazing energy that she would normally put out every time.
On opening night, she was the show stopper and when she was done performing she would stopped the show cold, and I had to stand there for about eight minutes waiting for the applause to die down before I could go on!
One Saturday matinee, she looked particularly drained, and I got worried that she might be sick. I was having dinner with Fosse at my house between shows; so I went to Ben Vereen and asked him to contact Stuart Ostrow (the producer) and have him come to the evening show, and I would ask Bob to do the same. I told Bob that I thought perhaps Irene needed a vacation, even though contractually she didn’t have one coming for some months; it might do her good to go to California for a while, and then finish up her contract when the weather was warmer.
Bob said he’d take a look at her in the next day or two. When I returned to the Imperial for the evening show, the call had just come through from Kennedy airport: Irene was on a plane to Los Angeles. She had had her bags packed before the matinee, and right after the show, with the help of Walter Willison, my friend and standby, she had left for the airport right after the afternoon performance. Her standby, Lucie Lancaster, went on that night, and then continued to play the part until Dorothy Stickney took over some weeks later. A question I have is why would they move her from NYC to Santa Monica?
It seems like her health would deteriorate having to make such a journey in poor health. The only reason I can think for the move is that maybe she wanted to be in familiar surroundings. A very different recording of Ryan singing… No Time at All Irene, upon landing in LA, was taken right to the hospital, diagnosed with malnutrition!! We all called and sent her cards and love and wishes to get better fast, but she basically wasted away over the next few days. I always I thought her behavior was like that of an old cat, who curls up under the bed and goes to sleep and just doesn’t wake up. Irene knew (either consciously or not) that it was her “time”. She stuck with her job as long as she could, and then, without fanfare, went home to die.
Earlier in the year, her friend and fellow Beverly Hillbillies cast member, Nancy Kulp, had tried to persuade her not to go to New York for the musical. She had been diagnosed with a brain tumor some time previously, but reportedly was never made aware of it.
Several days after she fell ill, Irene Ryan died on April 26, 1973. She was 70.
Please Note: Sharon Marie Tate (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) played Kulp’s loyal secretary Janet Trego on the Beverly Hillbillies was probably a close friend to Irene Ryan
and who herself met a tragic “untimely” death at the hands of The Evil Charlie Manson family.
Pallbearers at Ryan’s California funeral included Hillbillies co-stars Buddy Ebsen and
Max Baer, Jr., along with Beverly Hillbillies creator Paul Henning. The funeral was also attended by Donna Douglas, Harriet E. McGibbon, Louie Nye, and others associated with the series. Her body was interred in a mausoleum crypt at the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica, California, beside her sister, Anna Thompson.
According to this YouTube channel, which purports to show Irene Ryan’s death certificate (albeit bifurcated into two different sections), the place of birth (1st part) is given as “Texas,” sadly if true, the second part, which may not be legit, otherwise why make it two different parts or sections, as a “glioblastoma” (a brain tumor), is given as primary cause of death,
with heart attack second. It is dated May 1, 1973 (in the bottom of the second section).
Summary:
Irene Ryan is best remembered for playing the role of ‘Granny’ on the CBS television sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” which ran from 1962 until 1971. Her career spanned six decades and was one of the few entertainers who achieved success in
Vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She was born Jessie Irene Noblett in El Paso, Texas. She began her career at the age of 11 after winning $3 for singing
“Pretty Baby” in an amateur contest
at the Valencia Theater in San Francisco.
When she was 20, she married writer-comedian Tim Ryan and they performed in vaudeville as a double act, known in show business as a “Dumb Dora” routine, billed as “Tim and Irene.”
They had their own series of short subjects in the 1930s for Educational Pictures, and later worked in feature films for Monogram Pictures. In 1936, substituting for comedian Jack Benny, they starred in “The Jello Summer Show” on NBC radio’s “Red” Network. In 1942 they divorced and she toured with Bob Hope’s United Services Organization troupe during World War II, making regular appearances on his radio show, and also played Edgar Kennedy’s wife
in two of his series of short films in 1943.
In 1946 she married Harold Knox (divorced in 1961) and continued to work in motion pictures of the late 1940s and early 1950s, generally playing fussy or nervous women. In 1944 she appeared in the film “Hot Rhythm,” in which she sang “Happiest Girl in Town.” In 1947 she appeared in the movie “Heading for Heaven.” In January 1955, Ryan made her first television sitcom appearance on an episode of CBS’s “The Danny Thomas Show.” She appeared with actor Walter Brennan in an episode of his ABC television sitcom, “The Real McCoys” and was cast in three episodes as ‘Cynthia Boyle’ of the 1960 to 1961 CBS television sitcom “Bringing Up Buddy.”
However it was 1962 when Irene was cast in her most famous role, as ‘Daisy “Granny” Bodine’ the matriarch of the Clampett clan, in “The Beverly Hillbillies,” for which she received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964. Her other television credits include “Mr. Ed” (1958) and “Petticoat Junction” (1963). After the cancellation of “The Beverly Hillbillies” she was offered a starring role in a proposed television series in which she would have played a character similar to that of ‘Granny’. While interested, she decided to put the project on hold so that she could fulfill her dream of performing on Broadway. I have a video of a television production of “Pippin” with Martha Raye as Berthe; she’s good (and the song is great) but she’s not Irene Ryan.
The attached link is the audio, but not the video, of the song. Irene Ryan’s song from Pippen.
In 1972 she helped create and starred in the role of ‘Berthe’ in the Broadway musical “Pippin,” in which she sang the number “No Time At All”, which mentions, “a man who calls me Granny.” On March 10, 1973, she suffered a supposed stroke during a performance of “Pippin” and returned California on her doctor’s orders and was hospitalized, where it was discovered that she had an inoperable brain tumor. She died the following month in Santa Monica, California at the age of at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California at the age of 70.
In 1973, prior to her death, she was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical) for her performance in “Pippin”. In 1972 she started the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship awards scholarships to outstanding actors who participate
in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Walter Willison, John Rubinstein’s understudy for Pippin,
posted the following on YouTube in 2011:
“From her first preview performance in “PIPPIN” at The Kennedy Center to Opening Night on Broadway, which landed her a Motown recording contract the next day [at the time of her passing, under the guidance of producer Bob Crew, she had recorded half the songs for the unreleased album; two tracks, Stephen Schwartz’ “No Time At All” and “Time” by Bob Crew, were released on 45 and became number one singles], to her final matinee six-months later, Irene literally stopped the show eight times a week, receiving the kind of tumultuous,
five minute ovations reserved for only our most beloved stage performers.
Three days after receiving her Tony Award nomination, though undetected by the audience,
it was announce Irene Ryan suffered a stroke on stage during her final Saturday matinee performance. That evening she flew to Los Angeles and returned to her home in Santa Monica for one last day before being hospitalized that Monday, and operated on for a brain tumor
a few days later. She watched the 1973 Tony Awards from her hospital bed, and passed away
the following week. on April 26, 1973, just a month after her final Broadway performance.”
The description above is the most plausible one that I have read and ties together the various rumors in a reasonable way. It is consistent with John Rubinstein’s description.
As Mr. Rubinstein wrote, Mr. Willison was the person who apparently helped her get to
the airport and may have helped her pack. Where Irene immediately flew back to Los Angeles that evening, was hospitalized on Monday, and died a few weeks later.