Bea Benaderet

Beatrice Benaderet or Bea Benaderet is a former American actress known for the radio talk show “The Jack Benny Program and for her time at the Mercury Theater owned by Orson Welles. She has also featured in soap operas such as Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and provided the voice-over for Betty Ruble from “The Flintstones,” and Granny in Looney Tunes During the golden age of American animation, one o >> Read More... . Born in Manhattan to Samuel and Margaret, Benaderet completed her schooling at the St. Rose Academy in California. Beatrice debuted on her first show at the age of 12 when she was a part of The Beggar’s Opera on the KGO radio station. Benaderet’s first job constituted a combination of singing, acting, producing and writing at the now-defunct KFRC channel. At the Mercury Theater, she was a part of Orson Welles’s radio presentations such as “A Christmas Carol,” “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “Escape,” June Moon and “The Hurricane.” In the 1940s, Benaderet also featured in “The Jack Benny Program,” The Mel Blanc Born on 30th May 1908, Melvin Jerome Blank known a >> Read More... Show, “Fibber McGee & Molly,” My Favorite Husband, and “The Great Gildersleeve.” Beatrice was offered the role of Ethel Mertz on “I Love Lucy” produced by the CBS networks, but she had to decline politely because of her prior commitments to the television adaptation of the “George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.”

Benaderet was twice nominated for Emmy Awards in the category of Best Supporting Actress for the show. She has also featured in the NBC-produced Peter Loves Mary, and in “The Restless Gun.” From the mid-1940s to the 1950s, Benaderet provided the voice-over for various Warner Bros. cartoons including that of Granny in Looney Tunes, who is the owner of the Canary “Tweety,” and in Bugs Bunny anime “Little Red Riding Rabbit.” The 1960s saw her work with Alan Reed and Mel Blanc in the animated series The Flintstones. In 1963, Paul Henning cast Benaderet as Kate Bradley, who was the owner of The Shady Rest Hotel in “Petticoat Junction.” On February 8th, 1960, Beatrice received an induction on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In the year 1967, Benaderet was diagnosed with a combination of pneumonia and lung cancer, and the following year she passed away. She was married to Eugene Twombley, who also died on the day of her funeral as the result of a heart attack.