Frank Cady, 96, a character actor who played Hooterville general-store proprietor Sam Drucker on the TV sitcoms “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction,” died Friday at his home in Wilsonville, Ore., said his daughter, Catherine Turk. No specific cause was given.

Like Mr. Haney, Eb Dawson, Hank Kimball and Arnold the Pig, Cady’s Sam Drucker was a supporting cast member on “Green Acres” to lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas and his socialite wife, Lisa, played by Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor, who had ditched the high life in New York City for the charms of a farm in Hooterville.

Cady played Drucker for the entire run of “Green Acres” on CBS, from 1965 to 1971, when it was canceled. The show continued to air for years in syndication. He also portrayed Drucker on “Petticoat Junction” and “The Beverly Hillbillies,” programs that shared some secondary characters. He reprised the role for the 1990 TV movie “Return to Green Acres.”

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Cady had a recurring role as Doc Williams on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” and had guest roles in TV series beginning in the early 1950s. He also had small parts in films, most notably Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” and appeared in Southern California stage productions.

He was born Sept. 8, 1915, in the Lassen County town of Susanville and studied drama at Stanford University. After serving in the military during World War II, he worked as a radio broadcaster before landing acting jobs.

Cady and his wife, Shirley, moved to Oregon in the 1990s. She died in 2008.

Reflecting on his TV career, Cady told the Portland Oregonian in 1995, “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.”


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