Some good habits are taught easily, and some feel like they're so deeply ingrained in us that they are inseparable from our very being.

As an actor who spent her entire life performing one way or another, Irene Ryan was no stranger to the entertainment scene when she was cast as Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies.

In her younger days, Ryan was a star on the vaudeville stage. Even after vaudeville went the way of the dodo in favor of mediums like film and television, Ryan never forgot the important lessons that life on the stage taught her. "It's the reason I'm the first one on the set for every scene," said the actor during an interview with TV Graphic. "All my life I've been on time."

Ryan was also willing to admit that many of the lessons that she learned were learned the hard way, born out of an anxious response to the tumultuous nature of the entertainment industry. "I was always scared I would be fired," she said. "And you know something, I'm still scared."

However, as fearless as Granny was during The Beverly Hillbillies, Ryan was even more courageous. She was able to look fear in the face every day she came onto set, and face it head on, because what truly overwhelmed her fear was a whole lot of love for the craft."

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"But I loved show business," said Ryan during an interview with the Redlands Daily Facts. "Every minute of it. Why? To really love show business you have to be OF it, not just IN it. That's me, honey. I'm OF it."

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