Nancy Kulp

Nancy Kulp
Kulp circa 1960s
Born	Nancy Jane Kulp (1921-08-28)August 28, 1921 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	February 3, 1991(1991-02-03) (aged 69) Palm Desert, California, USA[1][2]
Cause of death	Cancer
Resting place	Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery, Mifflintown, Pennsylvania[3]
Alma mater	University of Miami Florida State University
Years active	1951–89
Spouse(s)	Charles M. Dacus (m. 1951; div. 1961)
Parent(s)	Marjorie C. and Robert Tilden Kulp
Awards	During Service in the U.S. Navy: –American Campaign Medal

Nancy Jane Kulp (August 28, 1921 – February 3, 1991) was an American character actress best known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the popular CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies.

Early life

Kulp was born to Marjorie C. (née Snyder) and Robert Tilden Kulp in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She was their only child. Kulp's father was a traveling salesman, and her mother was a school teacher and, later, a principal.^[4] The family moved from Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, to Miami-Dade County, Florida, sometime before 1935.^[5]

In 1943 Kulp graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from Florida State University,^[6] which was then known as Florida State College for Women, and she started pursuing a master's degree in English and French at the University of Miami. She was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. Early in the 1940s she worked as a feature writer for the Miami Beach Tropics newspaper, writing profiles of celebrities, including Clark Gable and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.^[7][8]

Kulp left the University of Miami in 1944 to volunteer for service in the US Naval Reserve (WAVES) during World War II. While on active duty Ltjg. Kulp received several decorations, including the American Campaign Medal. She left the service in 1946.

Career

Film

Kulp moved to Hollywood, California, not long after she married Charles Malcolm Dacus (in April 1951), to work in a studio publicity department, where director George Cukor convinced her that she should work in front of a camera. In The Model and the Marriage Broker she made her film debut as a character actress.^[9] She then appeared in other films, including Shane,^[10] Sabrina,^[11] and A Star is Born.^[12] After working in television on The Bob Cummings Show, Kulp returned to movies in Forever, Darling,^[13] The Three Faces of Eve,^[14] The Parent Trap,^[15] Who's Minding the Store?,^[16] and The Aristocats.^[17] In 1966, she appeared as Wilhemina Peterson in the film The Night of the Grizzly, starring Clint Walker and Martha Hyer.^[18]

Television

Kulp (center) with Max Baer Jr. and Sharon Tate in The Beverly Hillbillies, 1965

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 in the episode "Johnny Bravo" of the ABC/Warner Brothers series Cheyenne, with Clint Walker. Kulp appeared in 1955–1956 as Anastasia in three episodes of the NBC sitcom It's a Great Life. In 1958, she appeared in Orson Welles' little known pilot episode The Fountain of Youth in the TV 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 in the 1956 episode titled "Lucy Meets the Queen", of I Love Lucy. In that episode, she portrayed an English maid, showing Lucy and Ethel how to curtsy properly before the Queen. Kulp also appeared in episodes of The Real McCoys, Perry Mason ("The Case of the Prodigal Parent", 1958), 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 The Outlaws ("The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid"). She played a housekeeper in a pilot for The William Bendix Show, which aired as the 1960–61 season finale of CBS's Mister Ed under the episode titled "Pine Lake Lodge".

In 1962, Kulp landed her breakout role of Jane Hathaway, the love-starved, bird-watching, perennial spinster on CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies television series. She remained with the show until its cancellation in 1971. In 1967, she received an Emmy Award nomination for her role.^[19] In 1978, she appeared on The Love Boat in the episode titled "Mike and Ike / The Witness / The Kissing Bandit" and she played Aunt Gertrude in the episode titled "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 appeared on The Brian Keith Show and Sanford and Son.

Kulp was once described as television's most homely girl or, as one reviewer put it, possessing the "face of a shriveled balloon, the figure of a string of spaghetti, and the voice of a bullfrog in mating season." Others described her as tall and prim and praised her comedic skills.^[8]

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^[20] in the Lyceum Theatre.^[21]

Politics, academia and retirement

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.^[22] As an opponent of Republican incumbent, Bud Shuster, in a Republican district, Kulp was the underdog.

Sixty-two years old at the time, Kulp said some people 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.^[22]

To her dismay, Hillbillies co-star Buddy Ebsen called the Shuster campaign and volunteered to make a radio campaign ad in which he called Kulp "too liberal."^[23] 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, or just 33.6% to Shuster's 117,203 votes and 66.4%, she lost.^[24]

After her defeat, she worked at Juniata College, a private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, as an artist-in-residence.^[25] Later she taught acting.

Personal life

Kulp married Charles Malcolm Dacus on April 1, 1951, in Dade County, Florida; they divorced in 1961.^[26] She retired, first to a farm in Connecticut and later to Palm Springs, California and became involved in several charity organizations, including the Humane Society of the Desert, the Desert Theatre League and United Cerebral Palsy.^[6] Later in life, Kulp indicated to author Boze Hadleigh in a 1989 interview, that she was a lesbian. "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."^[27]

Death

Kulp was diagnosed with cancer in 1990, for which she received chemotherapy. By 1991, the cancer had spread, and she died on February 3 at a friend's home in Palm Desert, California.^[7][28] Her remains are interred at Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania.^[3]

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

References

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nancy Kulp.

• Nancy Kulp at the Internet Movie Database
• Nancy Kulp at the Internet Broadway Database