- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDoris Ione Smith
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- An honest-to-goodness Southern Belle, similar to her most famous character role, "Elly May Clampett" on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Donna Douglas grew up in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area, loving "critters". She got married soon after high school, had a son, divorced and won a couple of beauty contests, all within the span of a few years. She moved to New York and soon appeared on television series, including a well-remembered guest-star shot on The Twilight Zone (1959) in one of the series' most famous episodes, Eye of the Beholder (1960), in which she plays a woman who tries to undergo a series of experimental treatments to make her beautiful, only for the treatments to fail. The twist was she was beautiful, at least to the viewers, but considered hideous to the pig people of the planet, she was on. She immediately won the character role of "Elly May Clampett" on one of the greatest situation comedies of all time, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). This extremely comical series debuted with The Clampetts Strike Oil (1962), on her 30th birthday, Wednesday, September 26th, 1962, which is among the narrowest & sheerest coincidences, that are hardest to believe.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ken Severson
- SpousesRobert M. Leeds(June 26, 1971 - September 30, 1980) (divorced)Roland Bourgeois(July 5, 1951 - 1954) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenDanny Bourgeois
- ParentsEmmett Ratcliff Smith SrElma Robinson
- Voluptuous figure.
- Platinum blonde hair.
- During the filming of The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) she and Irene Ryan would annually put on a huge Christmas party for the show's staff and families.
- Had a second career as a gospel singer, as well as a popular real estate agent in Beverly Hills, California.
- Was a self-described tomboy in her younger days, and like her character Elly May Clampett, she was extremely fond of animals.
- Spent hours autographing photos and personally responding to fan mail - even though she received far more than anyone else in the cast of The Beverly Hillbillies (1962).
- Was Miss Baton Rouge, and then in 1957, Miss New Orleans.
- I really love pets. They're like children. They know if you really love them or not. You can't fool them.
- [on the early careers of Buddy Ebsen, Max Baer Jr., Irene Ryan and herself, before co-starring on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962)] It was the American Dream. But I think it had a lot of good things in it, too. We were all so grateful to be working, Buddy Ebsen--he had started out in vaudeville, and he had done many things, but his career wasn't on an upswing or anything. Granny, [Irene Ryan] she wasn't really doing anything. Max Baer and I, we were babies just starting out, so everybody was so grateful to be working.
- [on offering another role] I was offered to do a nighttime soap after The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). There was so much I didn't want to do because of family values. It was a big hit in a couple weeks, but it didn't matter to me, because I wanted to do a certain caliber of work and didn't want to do garbage.
- Back then, it was more or less we couldn't change a line in our script. We weren't allowed to change lines. Today, actors change everything and won't do parts. It's very different today. Back then, the producers were in charge. Today, actors are more in charge.
- I loved doing Elly May. She was a slice out of my own life. And, of course, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) was a story about the American Dream. No matter who tried to slicker us or take advantage of us, we always came out on top. We were never the losers. So the right attitude was important. We set a good examples. "The Hillbillies" set high standards.
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