Link (http://obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?n=Frank-Cady&pid=158006200)

Cady, Frank R. 96 Sept. 08, 1915 June 08, 2012 Frank was born in Susanville, Calif. to Clara and Leon "Ted" Cady. He was the youngest of three children. After pursuing an initial interest in journalism during both high school and college, Frank decided that his true calling was in speech and drama, in which he earned a degree from Stanford University. Frank met his wife Shirley at Stanford while both were appearing in campus musical shows.

After getting his bachelor's degree in 1938, Frank did theatre work both at home and abroad. Following a return to Stanford for graduate work, he worked as a radio announcer and news editor for KYA and KGO radio in San Francisco. From there, Frank served in World War II as part of the U.S. Army Air Force, serving in England, France and Germany until his discharge in 1946. After the war, Frank and Shirley moved to Los Angeles when, after appearing in a couple of plays, he was cast in his first motion picture. This was the beginning of a long and successful career as a television and movie actor.

Frank is probably best known for playing the character Sam Drucker on the television shows Petticoat Junction (1963-1970) and Green Acres (1965-1971). Altogether, his character appeared in 152 episodes of Petticoat Junction, 145 episodes of Green Acres and 11 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. Fans of an earlier day may also recall that, for 12 years, he appeared as the character Doc Williams, a neighbor, in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In addition to his extensive television work, Frank also appeared in a number of feature films over the years, some of the best known being Rear Window, The Big Carnival, The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, When Worlds Collide, The Bad Seed and Zandy's Bride.

In addition to acting, Frank had many other interests and talents. Always witty, he loved to write mostly silly poems, limericks, and song parodies, entertaining friends and family. He also enjoyed many years of golfing with friends and traveling, including several years of hiking in Switzerland. In 1977, Frank retired and he and Shirley moved to Cambria, Calif. on the central coast. In 1991, they moved to Wilsonville in the Charbonneau golf community. Frank is preceded in death by Shirley, his wife of 68 years and the love of his life (in 2008); his brother, Donald Cady; and sister, Gene Gerzo. He is survived by his son, Steven Cady of Grass Valley, Calif.; daughter, Catherine Turk of Olympia, Wash.; three grandchildren and three great- grandchildren.

R.I.P. Frank. Sam Drucker was one of the best supporting characters on tv. :(

Looks like Eb's the only regular cast member left. Rest in peace Mr. Drucker!

“You get typecast. I’m remembered for those shows and not for some pretty good acting jobs I did other times. I suppose I ought to be grateful for that. Because otherwise I wouldn’t be remembered at all. I’ve got to be one of the luckiest guys in the world.”

I wish that more actors in similar situations had the same attitude as Mr. Cady.

:rip: Frank.

Looks like Eb's the only regular cast member left. Rest in peace Mr. Drucker!

Frank outlived almost every regular and recurring star on Green Acres. Aside from Tom Lester, the only other surviving cast member is Mary Grace Canfield who played Ralph Monroe. Director Richard L. Bare (98) is also still with us.

:rip:

http://www.nndb.com/people/572/000026494/frank-cady-1.jpg

:rip: Mr. Grady, I'll be watching episodes of Green Acres and Petticoat Junction in Homage to you, the latest "Fallen Star". :tv:

He was a terrific actor and seemed like a wonderful man as well. God bless him. :rip:

Just last night, I was thinking about how he's still alive. Then today I get online and read this. :(

Rest in Peace, Mr. Cady.

Ever notice these thing always happen in threes? Last Sunday it was Richard Dawson, Ray Bradbury passed away on Monday, Today we lost Frank Cady :rip:

God Bless him and may he rest in peace. He lived a long, full and clean life and brought joy to many through his various roles.

I love this quote from Frank Cady:

"What's the secret to playing Sam Drucker? I just play myself. Sam Drucker and I are old friends. I played him on "Petticoat Junction" (1963), "Green Acres" (1965) and "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962) and we were going strong until 1971, when Fred Silverman canceled every show with a tree in it."

I love this quote from Frank Cady:

"What's the secret to playing Sam Drucker? I just play myself. Sam Drucker and I are old friends. I played him on "Petticoat Junction" (1963), "Green Acres" (1965) and "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962) and we were going strong until 1971, when Fred Silverman canceled every show with a tree in it."
I think that's why I liked him so much. He seemed just like the rest of us.

He was wonderful as Doc Williams on The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet -where hey once again played a character both good natured and reliable.

Looks like Eb's the only regular cast member left. Rest in peace Mr. Drucker!
I believe Mary Grace Canfield (Ralph Monroe) is still alive.

I've always wanted to do my shopping at Drucker's store. RIP.

I believe Mary Grace Canfield (Ralph Monroe) is still alive.

As noted earlier along with Director Richard L. Bare. (98)

The funny thing about Sam Drucker it seems to me, that he was the one Hooterville resident that Oliver Douglas could count on to be well, "sane":lol:. In the General store, Mr. Haney, Hank Kimball, Fred Ziffel, Newt Kiley and Joe Carson were always annoying Sam with their idiosyncrasies as much as they annoyed Oliver.

Then at other times Oliver would approach Sam with some kind of business, and Sam could be as nonsensical or even loony, as the rest of them!

:rip: Frank Cady.

I was just watching some of the later seasons of Green Acres on hulu last night and thinking the same as someone else said. Amazing he was still alive and well at 96. Such a great actor and I always enjoyed the scenes in his store. I hope hulu keeps the entire series online since I don't think we'll ever get the last three seasons on dvd :(

RIP, Mr. Haney/Cady... :(

Rest in peace.

I love this quote from Frank Cady:

"What's the secret to playing Sam Drucker? I just play myself. Sam Drucker and I are old friends. I played him on "Petticoat Junction" (1963), "Green Acres" (1965) and "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962) and we were going strong until 1971, when Fred Silverman canceled every show with a tree in it."
I love it, too. What a great attitude. :cool: :D

Frank Cady played a great straight man to the myriad zanies he was surrounded with. He usually played opposite characters like Mr. Haney, Eb, Uncle Joe and others like that. He was the normal one, the one you would most like to know in real life. It takes great talent to play a straight man properly. If the character is not played properly, the zany character will come off as just stupid and will defeat the comedy. Frank Cady's gift was that he was a talented actor who helped you believe the most absurd scenes. I've never seen him do drama, but I have no doubt he would have been equally fine in it.

:rip:

Link (http://blog.aarp.org/2012/06/12/where-was-actor-frank-cady-all-those-years-answer-everywhere/)

If you watched TV in the 1960s, you may remember Frank Cady as Hooterville general-store proprietor Sam Drucker in the hit sitcoms Green Acres and Petticoat Junction, or in his recurring role as Doc Williams in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. But chances are, you saw Cady, who died last Friday at age 96 in Wilsonville, Oregon, in a whole lot of other roles as well, even if you can’t quite place him.

That’s because Cady was the quintessential character actor – a workmanlike specialist in portraying the quirky, off-center idiosyncratic personalities who serve as foils for Hollywood’s leading men and ladies. Though never a star, Cady was a sought-after commodity during an acting career that stretched more than four decades. He appeared in hundreds of episodes of classic TV shows – ranging from Gunsmoke, Hazel, The Untouchables and Perry Mason to the original Hawaii 5-0. He also was in 40 films, including such classics as Rear Window (he’s the man on the balcony, tenderly cradling the dead dog), DOA, The Bad Seed and The Asphalt Jungle. Great directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and John Huston cast him in their films because he had a gift for making a subtle contribution to a film – whether it was helping to flesh out a story and move it along, or simply adding a little color.

Cady, who studied drama at Stanford University and served in the U.S. Army during World War II, got his big break at age 31 in 1946 when a Hollywood agent discovered him acting in a friend’s play. That led to his debut role as a college professor in a ‘B’ movie, Sarge Goes to College. While he had obvious talent, he had little choice but to pursue the character actor route, given his hairline deficiencies. (This was a decade or so before Yul Brynner demonstrated that a slick-pated actor could play romantic and action hero roles.) As Cady explained in a 1959 interview:

At 24, my head was as shiny as a cue ball on a billiard table. I naturally thought this meant curtains. Actually, I found it helped. When I was too young to play real character parts, they mistook me for older because of the bald noggin. I got juicy roles right from the start.

But it was really Cady’s versatility as an actor that got him his breaks. Hitchcock liked him so much that when another actor wasn’t available to play a minor role in Rear Window, the director grabbed Cady and got him to don a toupee so that he could fill in.

Another of Cady’s secrets of success, as he once told syndicated columnist Vernon Scott, was that he had enough confidence in his abilities and career prospects that he felt compelled to try stealing scenes. “I don’t make a big impact,” he explained. “I’m not a flashy guy. . . . [But] if you hang around long enough to show these people what you can do, you have a chance in this acting business.”

Cady’s skills were in such demand that at one point in the late 1960s, he juggled roles in three different shows – Green Acres, Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies – at the same time. It might have been four roles, had Cady gotten another role he was up for, town drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show. Cady actually played that role in the series’ 1960 pilot, but as he explained in this undated interview posted on YouTube, producer Sheldon Leonard didn’t like his non-stereotypical performance, and ultimately gave the part to Cady’s friend Hal Smith instead. Cady, stoically, viewed that rare failure as an opportunity. “It left me free to do other things,” he said.

Some actors, of course, might have been frustrated that a few sitcom roles obscured a larger body of work, but not Cady. To be sure, he was proud of his film roles, especially his performance as Gene Hackman’s father in the 1974 western Zandy’s Bride. And as a retiree in the 1990s he still yearned to play Polonius in Hamlet. But as he told Portland Oregonian interviewer Kristi Turnquist in a 1995 interview:

You get typecast. I’m remembered for those shows and not for some pretty good acting jobs I did other times. I suppose I ought to be grateful for that. Because otherwise I wouldn’t be remembered at all. I’ve got to be one of the luckiest guys in the world.

What a great article. Thanks for posting it, Charles.

What a tribute to Frank that Hitchcock liked him so. Hitchcock was known for having little patience for actors and especially loathed prima donnas. So the high regard fits nicely as Frank was modest, reliable and the quintessential team player. Absolutely one of the best character actors ever.

As other people have stated, I was just thinking the same thing not that long ago about how it was amazing he was still living. I was really hoping he would make it to 100. But sadly, that didn't happen. RIP Frank Cady.

I am always surprised when Frank Cady pops up in movies from the '50's. I usually don't recognize him, his mustache is smaller sometimes no mustache, but I always recognize that voice. He appears in the Jimmy Durante Christmas movie "A Christmas Wish" and he was in a film noir movie as a towns guy, I forget the name of the movie, but he'll pop up when you least expect it. He looked good too in the last appearance I saw him in on DVD, his comments on Petticoat Junction in the Paul Henning DVD release with Linda Henning the Bobbie Jo character. He must have been in his 90's in that interview. He also makes a commentary bit and does an Christmas wish when he was in his 90's on the Pet. Junction/Bev. Hillbillies Christmas DVD release. Thanks Frank, you were one of a kind, and that's saying a lot.

He was wonderful as Doc Williams on The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet -where hey once again played a character both good natured and reliable.

96 years, a stellar career and a legion of devoted fans-- you can't ask much more out of life. I'll still miss you, Sam. RIP