Max had honed his southern drawl by listening to Andy Griffith and Jonathan Winters recordings. He was able to do this while maintaining a perpetually idiotic expression on his face, which made people chuckle. By playing the rustic bumpkin Jethro, Max Baer Jr became an American comic star. Not only that, but the show provided Max with his big break. Unfortunately, his life following the show did not go as planned. This is the story of the guy behind Jethro Bodine, a character Hollywood couldn’t get enough of. Max Baer Jr. was born in Oakland, California, on December 4, 1937. He is the son of boxing champion Max Baer and Mary Ellen Sullivan.

It would be a long time before Baer Jr entered the acting world. In 1949, he appeared in a theater version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Blackpool Pavilion in England. Ultimately, a combination of chance, luck, and a lot of self-confidence got him part of a lifetime in The Beverly Hillbillies. Baer Jr. grew up in Sacramento before moving to Santa Clara to study. He graduated from Santa Clara University with a Bachelor of Business Management in 1959, but a year later, he found himself in a Los Angeles parking lot. Max Baer Jr chose to ride his motorcycle to Los Angeles the year following graduation. He wound himself on the Warner Bros. lot, where an executive recognized him as James Garner.