William Edgar Buchanan II
B March 20, 1903
D April 4, 1979

An American actor with a long career in both film and television. He is most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies television of the 1960s.

He was born in Humansville, Missouri, and moved with his family to Oregon when he was seven. In 1928, he earned a DDS degree from North Pacific College School of Dentistry. His wife Mildred (1907–1987) and he, classmates in dental school, were married in 1928, the year he graduated.

They had one child, a son named Buck. In 1939, they moved from Eugene, Oregon, to Altadena, California, where they relocated their dental practice. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse as an actor.

He appeared in his first film in 1939, at the age of 36, after which he turned his dentistry practice over to his wife. He was a member of Theta Chi fraternity and a Freemason.

Buchanan appeared in more than 100 films. Buchanan appeared as Uncle Joe Carson in all 222 episodes of Petticoat Junction – the only actor from the show to do so – as well as in 17 episodes of Green Acres, and three episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Petticoat Junction S1E5: The Courtship of Floyd Smoot (1963)
Edgar Buchanan & Linda Henning