You might know Buddy Ebsen strictly as Jed Clampett or Barnaby Jones, but Ebsen had a storied career on film, stage, and screen that spanned across decades. Ebsen showed no signs of slowing down as he grew older. 

In an interview with International Features, Ebsen revealed that although he was still acting at seventy-two, people have asked him when he was going to retire for the past twenty years. It turns out that Ebsen had no plans at all to retire. Instead, he had a wonderful workplace philosophy. He said, "I plan to keep going until it stops being fun."

However, not everyone was pleased with Ebsen's decision. He explained, "People kind of resent you if you're still working at my age. They think you should quit and be bored to death like them." He also offered this observation: "From a practical standpoint, I can't understand this. We have locked up and segregated in old folks homes the solutions to all our problems."

See More

Barnaby JonesDid you know?Buddy Ebsen

Producers wanted Barnaby Jones to be a ''foxy grandpa,'' according to Buddy Ebsen

To Ebsen, the older generation was the most crucial tool to use in writing the future, yet, in his opinion, the most severely underused. Ebsen continued, "Nobody will listen to old people, yet they have answers because they've already been through the problems." He added, "This is a fracture in our society. Instead of paying attention to our elders, as the tribes always have, we are giving way to pressure from the young who are concerned only with finding a place for themselves."

Ebsen himself, who had to fight for a place when he was younger, was not upset by the journey that his career had taken, and the hardships that came with it. He said, "I have no argument with this, because when you fight, and you succeed, you become stronger for having gone through that."

Watch Barnaby Jones on MeTV!

Tuesday–Saturday at 4 AM

*available in most MeTV markets

 Add to Favorites  Remind Me