Frank Cady (born September 8, 1915), is an American actor best known for his role as storekeeper Sam Drucker in the Petticoat Junction and Green Acres television series, which both ran at the same time in the 1960s. He also made guest appearances in The Beverly Hillbillies, also as Sam Drucker.
Frank also has the honor of being the only actor to play a recurring character on three TV sitcoms at the same time, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction, from 1968 to 1969. (George Lindsey played Goober Pyle in three successive series: The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, and Hee Haw, as did Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls, The Golden Palace, and Empty Nest).
He also is 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 though he only appeared in 170 of the show's 222 episodes.
"Green Acres" (1965-1971) As Sam Drucker, Frank Cady over the course of the show's six year run appeared in 142 of the 170 episodes.
"The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962-1971) As Sam Drucker, Frank Cady over the course of two seasons (1968-1970) appeared in 10 episodes.
He also played Doc Williams in Ozzie and Harriet, as well as numerous supporting parts in movies, and has also appeared in television commercials for (among other products) Shasta Grape Soda. One significant film role was in George Pál's 1951 film When Worlds Collide. There he was the assistant to the John Hoyt character who pushes his wheelchair. He also had a prominent role in Billy Wilder's film Ace in the Hole, also known as The Big Carnival. Cady had a small role (with no dialogue, and seen mostly in long shot) in one of Alfred Hitchcock's most prestigious films, Rear Window. He can also be seen in the 1950 film Father of the Bride, requesting a martini from Spencer Tracy during the engagement party.
Frank attended Stanford University, where he was involved with the campus humor magazine, the Stanford Chaparral.
He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He has been married to his wife, Shirley, since 1940 and they have two children.
In 2005, he attended Eddie Albert's funeral along with Green Acres's co-stars Sid Melton and Mary Grace Canfield who portrayed the Monroe "brothers," Alf and Ralph..
Although Frank Cady's most famous role would be that of general-store owner Sam Drucker, one of the less nutty residents of Hooterville in both "Green Acres" (1965) and "Petticoat Junction" (1963), he had a history as a film, stage and television actor long before those shows. Usually cast as a gregarious small-town businessman, druggist, store clerk or other type of all-around Midwestern-type good guy, Cady was actually a California native, born in Susanville in 1915. The acting bug bit him when he sang in an elementary school play, and after graduating from Stanford University he headed to London, England, to train in the theater. When World War II broke out he was already in Europe, so he enlisted in the Army Air Force and spent the next several years in postings all over the continent. After his discharge he returned to the US and headed for Hollywood. An agent saw him in a local play, signed him, and he was on his way. One of his earlier--and more atypical--roles was as a seedy underworld character pulled in for questioning in a cop's murder in the noir classic He Walked by Night (1948), and he played a succession of hotel clerks, bureaucrats, henpecked husbands and the like for the next 40+ years. He did much television work from the mid-'50s onward.
