The great Walt Disney called his voice one of the two most recognizable in the world. As an actor, he made appearances in hundreds of television episodes. He was a syndicated Hollywood columnist and radio star. He rubbed elbows with Hollywood’s biggest stars and even was an insider for a popular U.S. President. Yet one character defined him.
Often in Hollywood, an actor can be associated with a role that is so popular or well known to the viewing public that it is a struggle to move on from that role to others. Such is the case with Pat Buttram. Widely known as Mr. Haney, from guest roles on the CBS series Petticoat Junction and a starring role on the network’s hit Green Acres, that role was only a fraction of Buttram’s body of work.
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Born Maxwell Emmett Buttram in 1915 in the small town of Addison, Alabama, Pat was the youngest of seven children. The son of a Methodist minister, Pat almost followed in his father’s footsteps instead of becoming a famous actor.
After graduating from Mortimer Jordan High School, Buttram enrolled in Birmingham-Southern College to study for the ministry. A role in a college play led to a job offer from a local radio station. Soon after, he headed to Chicago for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. There he was interviewed by a local reporter and that led to Buttram being offered a job to become a regular on National Barn dance, a program broadcast on Chicago’s WLS.
Buttram headed west in the late 1940s, where he landed a short-term role as a sidekick for Roy Rogers. He soon made friends with cowboy star Gene Autrey, which led to a role in Autrey’s 1948 film “The Strawberry Roan.” This was the beginning of a long-term association and friendship with Buttram, being cast in Autrey’s films and joining the cast of Autrey’s radio show and later his television show. He would appear in eighty-three episodes.
In 1957, he began hosting a radio show on CBS. Over his career, Pat would make guest appearances on some of TV’s most popular shows. He did standup on The Ed Sullivan Show and had roles on The Real McCoys, The Danny Thomas Show, The Munsters, Adam-12, Love, American Style, The Love Boat, Knight Rider, Who’s The Boss, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Chico and the Man, among others. Buttram also starred in more serious roles. One of the most notable was in ”The Jar” episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Buttram had expressed doubts about being able to portray the twisted character adequately. Hitchcock told him, “Young man if I say you can do the part, you can do it.”
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In 1962, Buttram released a comedy album, “Off His Rocker.” He also did a wide variety of voice acting. He provided voices for Rugrats, Garfield and Friends, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Aristocats, The Fox and the Hound, and more. He has a writer credit for two episodes of Hee Haw and had a cameo role in Back to the Future Part III.
Buttram was close friends with Ronald Reagan, often adding humorous bits to his speeches and appearing at events with his friend. He was also noted for his skills as a roastmaster, and he wrote jokes for other artists.
The role that placed Buttram in the spotlight was as Mr. Haney on Green Acres. Pat appeared in 147 episodes as the wheeler-dealer. He based his character portrayal on Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager. The two had met years earlier when Parker was a carnival barker. The show did well in the ratings but was a casualty of CBS’s “rural purge.” One of show business’s most famous quotes came from Buttram about that move.
When CBS decided to change its programming lineup to appeal to a more sophisticated audience, the network canceled its more country-themed shows. Green Acres was one of the casualties. That transformation became known as “The Rural Purge,” Buttram said, “CBS canceled everything with a tree in it, including Lassie.”
Pat retired from acting in 1980 and returned to Alabama. He commuted to Hollywood for occasional roles. In 1988, Buttram was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. He was married twice and had two daughters. He died of kidney failure in 1994.
