Before he was television's favorite uncle, Edgar Buchanan was a practicing dentist
In short: Edgar Buchanan is best remembered as the lovable Uncle Joe Carson from 1960s sitcoms like Petticoat Junction. Yet, his path to Hollywood was unconventional. He spent over a decade as a professional dentist, only trading his drill for a script at age 36 after a chance encounter with talent scouts.
Born in 1903 in Humansville, Missouri, William Edgar Buchanan II faced early pressure from his father, a dentist, to pursue a stable career. His father famously warned that theater work was a path to mediocrity and uncertainty. Despite this, Buchanan studied theater at the University of Oregon while simultaneously completing his pre-med requirements. In 1928, he earned his DDS degree from the North Pacific College School of Dentistry, marrying his classmate, Mildred Spence, the same year. For over a decade, the couple operated a dental practice in Eugene, Oregon.
The trajectory of his life shifted in 1939 when the family moved to Altadena, California. While his wife, Dr. Millie Buchanan, took over their dental practice, Edgar joined the Pasadena Playhouse. His performance there caught the attention of studio scouts, leading to a seven-year Hollywood contract. He left dentistry behind, eventually appearing in more than 100 films, including classics like Shane and The Man from Colorado. His background occasionally bled into his work; in the 1941 film Texas, he played a dentist, and he later portrayed a rascally ex-outlaw who was also a dentist in the series Tales of Wells Fargo.
Buchanan’s television career was prolific, spanning guest roles in iconic series like The Twilight Zone and Gunsmoke, as well as regular parts in Hopalong Cassidy and Cade's County. However, his most enduring legacy remains Uncle Joe Carson. He appeared in all 222 episodes of Petticoat Junction, becoming the show's proprietor after the 1968 passing of Bea Benaderet. He continued working until his later years, even releasing a narration single, "Phantom 309," in 1967. Buchanan passed away in 1979 from a stroke complicated by pneumonia, leaving behind a career that defied his father's early warnings about the instability of the arts.
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