Frank Cady

Acting

Frank Cady

Born 1915-09-08 · Susanville, California, USA

Frank Cady (September 8, 1915 – June 8, 2012) was an American actor. His most famous role was general-store owner Sam Drucker, one of the less-nutty residents of Hooterville in both Green Acres (1965) and Petticoat Junction (1963). He had a history as a film, stage, and television actor long before those shows, and also appeared on some radio programs including Gunsmoke. In the 1950s, Cady played Doc Williams in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), along with numerous supporting parts in movies and also appeared in television commercials for (among other products) Shasta Grape Soda. Cady has been most prolific in television and was the only actor to play a recurring character on three TV sitcoms at the same time, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Green Acres (1965), and Petticoat Junction (1963). Usually cast as a gregarious small-town businessman, druggist, store clerk or other type of all-around Midwestern-type good guy, Cady was actually a California native, born in Susanville in 1915. The acting bug bit him when he sang in an elementary school play, and after graduating from Stanford University he headed to London, England, to train in the theater. When World War II broke out he was already in Europe, so he enlisted in the Army Air Force and spent the next several years in postings all over the continent. After his discharge he returned to the US and headed for Hollywood. An agent saw him in a local play, signed him, and he was on his way. One of his earlier--and more atypical--roles was as a seedy underworld character pulled in for questioning in a cop's murder in the noir classic He Walked by Night (1948), and he played a succession of hotel clerks, bureaucrats, henpecked husbands and the like for the next 40+ years. He did much television work from the mid-'50s onward. Cady resided in Wilsonville, Oregon and at the time of his death had two children, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Acting credits

Rear Window poster
8.3

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Rear Window

1954

The Bad Seed poster
7.1

Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.

The Bad Seed

1956

The Asphalt Jungle poster
7.5

Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.

The Asphalt Jungle

1950

Ace in the Hole poster
7.8

An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.

Ace in the Hole

1951

Father of the Bride poster
7.0

Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.

Father of the Bride

1950

The Tin Star poster
7.0

An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge.

The Tin Star

1957

Three Violent People poster
5.9

A rancher, his shady bride and his one-armed brother fight amid carpetbaggers in Texas.

Three Violent People

1956

The Million Dollar Duck poster
5.8

Professor Dooley takes home a duck from his research laboratory as a toy for his son, but soon finds out that it lays golden eggs.

The Million Dollar Duck

1971

When Worlds Collide poster
6.4

When a group of astronomers calculate a star is on a course to slam into Earth, a few days before, it's accompanying planet will first pass close enough to the Earth to cause havoc on land and sea. They set about building a rocket so a few selected individuals can escape to the planet.

When Worlds Collide

1951

Perfect Strangers poster
6.0

Romance at a murder trial with a pair of sequestered jurors who are the only ones who think that the woman in the dock is innocent. Separated from their normal lives, jurors Terry Scott and David Campbell start to fall in love.

Perfect Strangers

1950

The Indian Fighter poster
6.3

A scout leading a wagon train through hostile Indian country gets involved with a Sioux chief's daughter.

The Indian Fighter

1955

It's a Great Feeling poster
6.0

A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.

It's a Great Feeling

1949

He Walked by Night poster
6.7

Roy Martin aka Roy Morgan is a burglar and former war-time Radio & Electronics Engineer who listens in to radio police calls, allowing him to stay one step ahead of the cops.

He Walked by Night

1949

Zandy's Bride poster
6.4

Zandy Allan purchases a mail-order bride, Hannah Lund. He treats her as a possession, without respect or humanity, until their shared ordeal as they struggle to survive develops in him a growing love.

Zandy's Bride

1974

Convicted poster
6.2

A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.

Convicted

1950

7 Faces of Dr. Lao poster
6.9

An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.

7 Faces of Dr. Lao

1964

Young Man with a Horn poster
6.4

Taken in by the musical world as a young orphan, Rick Martin grows up with a desire to play pure jazz instead of the commercial gigs he lands, whilst also coping with the problems caused by his tempestuous marriage to an aloof heiress.

Young Man with a Horn

1950

The Sellout poster
5.4

A small-town newspaper editor risks everything to expose a corrupt sheriff.

The Sellout

1952

Special Agent poster
9.0

A California railroad agent hunts two brothers for murder and robbing a payroll express.

Special Agent

1949

D.O.A. poster
6.9

Frank Bigelow is about to die, and he knows it. The accountant has been poisoned and has only 24 hours before the lethal concoction kills him. Determined to find out who his murderer is, Frank, with the help of his assistant and girlfriend, Paula, begins to trace back over his last steps. As he frantically tries to unravel the mystery behind his own impending demise, his sleuthing leads him to a group of crooked businessmen and another murder.

D.O.A.

1949

Trial poster
6.9

A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters. A courtroom drama set in 1947 and underlying post-WW2 acute problems facing the USA such as stormy race relations and the growing threat of local communism.

Trial

1955

The Crooked Way poster
6.2

A war veteran suffering from amnesia, returns to Los Angeles from a San Francisco veterans hospital hoping to learn who he is and discovers his criminal past.

The Crooked Way

1949

Return to Green Acres poster
3.5

Tv movie that reunites most the show's cast members. The Douglases move back to New York. But when Haney tries to get everyone's property so that a developer can build on them, the residents go to New York to get Douglas to help them. But he's a little hesitant.

Return to Green Acres

1990

Marry Me Again poster
8.0

Bill, a jet pilot hero from the Korean War, returns home with intentions of marrying his sweetheart, Doris. But Doris has inherited a million dollars and Bill won't marry her because he dreams of a home and babies, with himself as the sole source of income on his $65 a week. Doris has to find a way to make him change his mind.

Marry Me Again

1953