Nancy Kulp
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Nancy Jane Kulp (August 28, 1921 – February 3, 1991) was an American character actor, writer and comedian widely known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Early life
Kulp was born to Robert Tilden and Marjorie C. (née Snyder) Kulp in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She was their only child. Kulp's father was a traveling salesman, and her mother was a schoolteacher and later a principal.<ref>1930 U.S. Federal Census Record, viewed on Ancestry.com on June 7, 2010.</ref> The family moved from Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, to Miami sometime before 1935.<ref>US Federal Census Record, viewed on Ancestry.com on June 7, 2010.</ref>
In 1943, Kulp graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University).<ref name="Florida"/> She continued her studies for a master's degree in English and French at the University of Miami, where she was a member of the sorority Pi Beta Phi. Early in the 1940s, she also worked as a feature writer for the Miami Beach Tropics newspaper, writing profiles of celebrities such as Clark Gable and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.<ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LAT">Template:Cite web</ref>
Military service
In 1944, during World War II, Kulp left the University of Miami to join the U.S. Naval Reserve. She attained the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, and received several decorations while in the service, including the American Campaign Medal. She was honorably discharged in 1946.
Career
Film
In 1951, not long after marrying Charles Malcolm Dacus, Kulp moved to Van Nuys to work in MGM's publicity department. At the studio, director George Cukor soon convinced her that she should be an actress, so the same year she began her MGM publicity job, she also made her film debut as a character actress in The Model and the Marriage Broker.<ref name="The Model and the Marriage Broker">Template:Cite web</ref> She then appeared in other films, including Shane,<ref name="Shane">Template:Cite web</ref> Sabrina,<ref name="Sabrina 1954">Template:Cite web</ref> and A Star is Born.<ref name="A Star is Born 1954">Template:Cite web</ref> After working in television on The Bob Cummings Show and on Perry Mason in "The Case of the Deadly Toy" in 1959, Kulp returned to movies in Forever, Darling,<ref name="Forever, Darling">Template:Cite web</ref> The Three Faces of Eve,<ref name="The Three Faces of Eve">Template:Cite web</ref> The Parent Trap,<ref name="The Parent Trap">Template:Cite web</ref> Who's Minding the Store?,<ref name="Who's Minding the Store?">Template:Cite web</ref> and The Aristocats.<ref name="The Aristocats">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1966, she appeared as Wilhelmina Peterson in the film The Night of the Grizzly, starring Clint Walker and Martha Hyer.<ref name="The Night of the Grizzly">Template:Cite web</ref>
Television
In 1955, Kulp joined the cast of The Bob Cummings Show (Love That Bob) with Bob Cummings, portraying pith-helmeted neighborhood bird watcher Pamela Livingstone. In 1956, she appeared as a waitress in the episode "Johnny Bravo" of the ABC/Warner Brothers series Cheyenne, with Clint Walker. Kulp played the role of Anastasia in three episodes of the NBC sitcom It's a Great Life in 1955 and 1956. In 1958, she appeared in Orson Welles' little-known pilot episode "The Fountain of Youth" in the television series Colgate Theatre. In 1960, she appeared as Emma St. John in the episode "Kill with Kindness" of the ABC/WB detective series Bourbon Street Beat, starring Andrew Duggan.
Kulp appeared on I Love Lucy in the 1956 episode "Lucy Meets the Queen", performing as an English maid, who shows Lucy and Ethel how to curtsy properly before Queen Elizabeth. Kulp also appeared in episodes of The Real McCoys, Perry Mason ("The Case of the Prodigal Parent", 1958, and "The Case of the Deadly Toy", 1959), The Jack Benny Program ("Don's 27th Anniversary with Jack"), 87th Precinct ("Killer's Choice"), Pete and Gladys, The Twilight Zone (as Mrs. Gann in "The Fugitive"), and Outlaws ("The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid, Esquire"). Kulp portrayed a slurring-drunk waitress in a scene with James Garner and Jean Willes in the 1959 Maverick episode "Full House". She played a housekeeper in a pilot for The William Bendix Show, which aired as the 1960–1961 season finale of CBS's Mister Ed under the title "Pine Lake Lodge". On the series My Three Sons in 1962, she portrayed a high school math and science teacher in two episodes under different character names, Miss Harris and Miss Fisher.<ref>"Robbie Valentino" and "The Big Game", My Three Sons (S02E21 and S02E24), episodes originally broadcast respectively on February 22 and March 15, 1962. Internet Movie Database (IMDb), an affiliate of Amazon.com, Seattle Washington. Retrieved July 8, 2017.</ref>
Shortly after her performances on My Three Sons in 1962, Kulp landed her breakout role as Jane Hathaway, the love-starved, bird-watching, perennial spinster, on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies. In 1967, she received an Emmy Award nomination for her role, and she remained with the show until its cancellation in 1971.<ref name="19th Primetime Emmy"/> In 1978, she appeared on The Love Boat in the episode "Mike and Ike / The Witness / The Kissing Bandit" and she played Aunt Gertrude in the episode "Tony and Julie / Separate Beds / America's Sweetheart". On April 7, 1989, she played a nun in the Quantum Leap season 1 episode "The Right Hand of God". Kulp also appeared on The Brian Keith Show and Sanford and Son.
Theatre
Kulp also performed in the Broadway production of Morning's at Seven in 1980 to 1981 as Aaronetta Gibbs as a replacement for Elizabeth Wilson<ref name="Morning"/> in the Lyceum Theatre.<ref name="Lyceum Theatre"/>
Politics, academia and retirement
Nancy Kulp served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) while living in California. In 1984, after working with the Democratic state committee in her home state of Pennsylvania "on a variety of projects" over a period of years, Kulp ran unopposed as the Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 9th congressional district.<ref name="Campaign">Template:Cite web</ref> As an opponent of six-term Republican Bud Shuster in a Republican-dominated district, Kulp was a decided underdog. Sixty-two years old at the time, Kulp said some voters might feel her background as an actress was "frivolous", but she noted that Ronald Reagan had taken the route from screen to politics, and she said anyone who "listens and cares" can do well.<ref name="Campaign"/>
To her dismay, her Hillbillies co-star Buddy Ebsen, an ardent Republican, contacted the Shuster campaign and volunteered to make a radio campaign ad in which he called Kulp "too liberal".<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> Kulp and Ebsen had a somewhat frosty relationship on set in part because of their sharp political differences. Later, Kulp said of Ebsen, "He's not the kindly old Jed Clampett that you saw on the show ... It's none of his business and he should have stayed out of it." She said Ebsen and she "didn't get along because I found him difficult to work with. But I never would have done something like this to him." Garnering 59,449 votes—just 33.6% of the ballots cast in the election—to Shuster's 117,203 votes and 66.4%, she lost.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After this, according to her close friends and family, Ebsen was regarded as persona non grata to Kulp and she made it clear to people not to bring him up in conversation around her with the exception of interviews related to her time on Hillbillies. In his later years, especially after Kulp's death, Ebsen privately expressed remorse for doing the ad and they only reconciled shortly before Kulp's death.<ref name="The Retro Site">Template:Cite web</ref>
After her defeat, she worked at Juniata College, a private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, as an artist-in-residence.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later she taught acting.
Personal life
Kulp married Charles Malcolm Dacus, an account executive with WTVJ, on April 1, 1951, at Miami Beach Community Church.<ref>"Sets Wedding Date". The Miami Herald. March 26, 1951.</ref><ref>"C.M. Dacus, Nancy Kulp Wed Sunday". Miami Daily News. April 2, 1951.</ref> She was 29 and he was 23. According to the engagement announcement, they had already been dating for five years.<ref>"Nancy Kulp And Charles Dacus Are Talking--About A Wedding". The Miami Herald. February 18, 1951.</ref> Kulp and Dacus divorced in 1953.<ref>Wodward, Nancy (September 8, 1953). "Conversation Piece". The Miami Herald.</ref>
After her retirement from acting and teaching, she moved first to a farm in Connecticut and later to Palm Springs, California, where she became involved in several charity organizations, including the Humane Society of the Desert, the Desert Theatre League, and United Cerebral Palsy.<ref name="Florida">Template:Cite news</ref>
Later, Nancy Kulp gave an interview to author and LGBT activist Boze Hadleigh, for his book "Hollywood Lesbians" in which she said,
As long as you reproduce my reply word for word, and the question, you may use it ... I'd appreciate it if you'd let me phrase the question. There is more than one way. Here's how I would ask it: "Do you think that opposites attract?" My own reply would be that I'm the other sort—I find that birds of a feather flock together. That answers your question.<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Page needed</ref>
Death
Kulp, a cigarette smoker,<ref>See Twilight Zone Episode "The Fugitive"</ref> was diagnosed with cancer in 1990 and received chemotherapy. By 1991, the cancer had spread, and she died on February 3, 1991, aged 69, in Palm Desert, California.<ref name="NYT"/>Template:Sfn Her remains are interred at Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania.<ref name=didyouknow/>
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | The Model and the Marriage Broker | Hazel Gingras | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Steel Town | Dolores | |
| The Marrying Kind | Edie | Uncredited | |
| 1953 | Shane | Mrs. Howells | |
| The Caddy | Emma | Uncredited | |
| Here Come the Girls | Washwoman | Uncredited | |
| 1954 | Sabrina | Jenny, maid | Uncredited |
| A Star is Born | Esther's neighbor in rooming house | Uncredited | |
| 1955 | The Shrike | Mrs. Coleman | Uncredited |
| Not as a Stranger | Deirdre | Uncredited | |
| You're Never Too Young | Marty's Mother | ||
| Count Three and Pray | Matty Miller | ||
| 1956 | Anything Goes | A bobby soxer | Uncredited |
| Forever, Darling | Amy | ||
| 1957 | Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend | Cleaning Woman | Uncredited |
| God Is My Partner | Maxine Spelvana | ||
| The Three Faces of Eve | Mrs. Black | ||
| Kiss Them for Me | WAVE Telephone Operator | Uncredited | |
| 1958 | The High Cost of Loving | Miss Matthews, Cave's Secretary | Uncredited cameo |
| 1959 | Five Gates to Hell | Susette | |
| 1961 | The Parent Trap | Miss Grunecker | |
| The Last Time I Saw Archie | Miss Willoughby | Uncredited | |
| The Two Little Bears | Emily Wilkins | ||
| 1962 | Moon Pilot | Space Flight Nutritionist | Uncredited |
| 1963 | Who's Minding the Store? | Emily Rothgraber | |
| 1964 | The Patsy | Helen, Theatergoer | |
| 1965 | Strange Bedfellows | Aggressive Woman | |
| 1966 | The Night of the Grizzly | Wilhelmina Peterson | |
| 1970 | The Aristocats | Frou-Frou | Voice |
Television
Theatre
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–81 | Morning's at Seven | Aaronetta Gibbs | Lyceum Theatre (April 10, 1980Template:Snd August 16, 1981) | Template:Plain list |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Role | Result | Template:Abbr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | The Beverly Hillbillies | Jane Hathaway | Template:Nom | <ref name="19th Primetime Emmy">Template:Cite web</ref> |
Discography
References
Sources
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External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 1921 births
- 1991 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- 20th-century American LGBTQ people
- Actresses from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
- Actresses from Miami
- Actresses from Palm Desert, California
- American film actresses
- American lesbian actresses
- American lesbian comedians
- American women comedians
- American LGBTQ military personnel
- American Presbyterians
- American television actresses
- American voice actresses
- California Democrats
- Comedians from Miami
- Comedians from Pennsylvania
- Comedians from Riverside County, California
- Deaths from cancer in California
- Female United States Navy officers
- Florida Democrats
- Florida State University alumni
- LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania
- Military personnel from Miami
- Military personnel from Pennsylvania
- Military personnel from Riverside County, California
- Pennsylvania Democrats
- United States Navy officers
- United States Navy personnel of World War II
- University of Miami alumni
- WAVES personnel