Actress whose father, Samuel David Benaderet, was a Sephardic Jewish emigrant from what is now Turkey. A leading radio and television voice, she was the original Betty Rubble on The Flintstones and starred as Kate Bradley in Petticoat Junction.
Who was Bea Benaderet?
Bea Benaderet was an American actress and one of the great voices of radio and early television. She was the original voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones, played Cousin Pearl on The Beverly Hillbillies, and starred as Kate Bradley in Petticoat Junction. Her father was a Sephardic Jew from what is now Turkey.
Family and early life
Beatrice Benaderet was born on 4 April 1906 in New York City. Her father, Samuel David Benaderet, was a Sephardic Jewish immigrant from the Ottoman Empire, in what is now Turkey, who worked as a tobacconist; her mother, Margaret O’Keefe, was Irish American. The family moved to San Francisco when she was young, and she began performing in Bay Area theater and radio as a child.
Radio and voice work
In the 1930s and 1940s Benaderet became one of the busiest actresses in American radio, appearing on programs including those of Jack Benny and Fibber McGee and Molly, and playing Blanche Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, a role she carried into television. She also voiced characters for Warner Bros. cartoons.
From 1960 to 1964 she was the voice of Betty Rubble in The Flintstones, the first prime-time animated series on American television.
Television star
In 1962 she played Cousin Pearl Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies. The following year she became the star of her own series, Petticoat Junction, playing Kate Bradley, the warm-hearted owner of a country hotel, from 1963 until her death. She received Emmy nominations for her work.
Death and legacy
Bea Benaderet died in Los Angeles on 13 October 1968. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her family story, from a Sephardic tobacconist from the Ottoman Empire to a star of American television, is one of the many paths that the Jews of the Ottoman lands traveled in America.
