Television and Movie Career
After being discharged from military service in 1946 Cady appeared in a series of plays in the Los Angeles area, which led to movie roles, beginning in 1947. In 1950, he had an uncredited speaking role in the classic film noir drama D.O.A. (as Sam the bartender in Banning, California), and another uncredited role in Father of the Bride (1950), requesting mint juleps from Spencer Tracy during the engagement party. He also had a small part in the noir classic The Asphalt Jungle (also 1950) playing a witness who refused to identify a robbery suspect. He appeared in George Pal's film When Worlds Collide (1951) as the assistant to John Hoyt's character. (Cady would work with Pal again in 1964, playing the mayor of Abalone in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.) Cady had a prominent role in Billy Wilder's film Ace in the Hole (aka, The Big Carnival, also 1951). He had a small non-speaking role, seen mostly in long shot, in one of Alfred Hitchcock's most prestigious films, Rear Window (1954), portraying the husband of the woman who owns a dog, which is raised and lowered to their apartment window in a basket. Cady also played the husband of Eileen Heckart's character in The Bad Seed (1956). Cady appeared on the Make Room For Daddy episode that was the pilot for The Andy Griffith Show as the town drunk, preceding Hal Smith who eventually took over that role as Otis Campbell. Cady also appeared on some radio programs, including the Gunsmoke episode 140 "Outlaw Robin Hood" on January 8, 1955.
In the 1950s, Cady played Doc Williams in Ozzie and Harriet (1954–55), along with numerous supporting parts in movies and also appeared in television commercials for (among other products) Shasta Grape Soda. Cady was prolific in television and was the only actor to play a recurring character on three television sitcoms at the same time, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction, from 1968 to 1969. He also was one of only three co-stars of Petticoat Junction who stayed with the series for its entire seven-year run, along with Edgar Buchanan and Linda Henning, appearing in 170 of the show's 222 episodes. His final acting role was in the television movie Return to Green Acres (1990).
In a 1995 interview with the Portland Oregonian Cady spoke of his television career: "You get typecast. I'm remembered for those shows and not for some pretty good acting jobs I did other times. I suppose I ought to be grateful for that, because otherwise I wouldn't be remembered at all. I've got to be one of the luckiest guys in the world."
In 2005, Cady attended Eddie Albert's funeral, along with Green Acres co-stars Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield.
Read more about this topic: Frank Cady
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