Donna Douglas.

Actress

Born: September 26, 1932

Died: January 1, 2015

Donna Douglas, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 82, was in many ways suited for the role that made her famous and for which she is best remembered, that of Elly May Clampett, the tomboy daughter in the classic sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71).

The show featured a family of American hillbillies who become millionaires when oil is discovered on their land. They take over a huge Beverly Hills mansion, but carry on behaving just as they did in the backwoods.

Donna Douglas also came from a "very poor" rural family She spent much of her childhood on a Louisiana farm, hanging out with cousins and the sort of "critters" that Elly May also loved.

On the minus side there were 500 other women up for the role, Douglas had little acting experience and the character was a teenager, whereas Douglas was almost 30 at the time.

She recalled the final screen tests: "They had a goat tied up on the set and they asked me, 'Do you reckon you can milk that goat?' Well, I had never milked a goat in my life but I said, 'Sure, I can milk that goat.'

"That was my first critter. Over the nine years I probably worked with over 900 different animals. Elly May didn't kiss a lot of men, but she sure kissed a lot of critters."

Douglas was born in 1932, seemingly as Doris Smith, though she was known as Dot. She married in her mid-teens and had a son, though the marriage lasted only a few years. After winning a couple of beauty contests, she decided to try her luck as a model and actress.

She had never been out of the state before, but left her son with her parents and secured work as a TV hostess. As an "elbow girl", she led talk-show guests to their chairs

She had a few small film roles and appeared in several television shows, before The Beverly Hillbillies. Over the next decade she appeared in 274 episodes. Her character was feisty, good-hearted, immensely strong, sexy, naïve, but certainly not stupid.

The Beverly Hillbillies ended in 1971. Douglas reprised her role in a TV movie called The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies in 1981. There was also a cinema film version in 1993, though Douglas was not involved.

During one of the breaks between series she had teamed up with Elvis Presley as the eponymous Mississippi riverboat entertainers in the 1966 film Frankie and Johnnie. However she did little film or television work after The Beverly Hillbillies. She later complained producers wanted her to show too much "skin".

Instead she worked as an estate agent and as a showbusiness agent, which led to a law suit when she claimed that the hit film Sister Act drew on a book to which she had screen rights. She reportedly turned down an out-of-court settlement and then lost the court case. However in a later case she accepted a settlement over an Elly May doll.

She recorded country and gospel music, travelled widely promoting charity and church events and wrote several books including a book of traditional Southern recipes, though Elly May was a famously bad cook.

Latterly Douglas had returned to live in Louisiana. She had married for a second time in the early 1970s, but that marriage was also short-lived. She is survived by her son from her first marriage.

BRIAN PENDREIGH