Buddy Ebsen may be remembered as the lovable Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, but his road to Hollywood success was anything but easy.

Long before he became one of television’s most recognizable stars, Ebsen endured financial hardship, career setbacks and even a terrifying medical crisis that cost him one of the most famous movie roles of all time.

At home, however, the veteran actor remained a devoted father who tried to teach his seven children one lesson above all else: never give up.

On his sprawling 36-acre ranch in California’s Santa Monica Mountains, Ebsen spent his downtime riding horses with his children, writing songs and reminding them that failure was simply part of life.

“He taught us to believe in ourselves, even if we failed,” his daughter Kiki Ebsen recalled.

Ebsen’s determination had been tested from an early age.

He trained as a dancer at his father’s dance school in Orlando, Florida, but his life changed dramatically after his family lost nearly everything when Florida’s booming real estate market collapsed.

With little money and few options, Ebsen left college and headed to New York City hoping to make it as a song-and-dance performer.

The early years were brutal.

“He really struggled until he got enough work to send for his sister, Vilma,” Kiki said. “That was a big accomplishment for him to reunite the family.”

The gamble eventually paid off.

Buddy and Vilma became a popular brother-and-sister dance act, appearing in the legendary Ziegfeld Follies before Ebsen made the jump to Hollywood and landed roles with MGM.

“He loved any role where he could dance,” Kiki said. “Dancing was his lifeblood.”

But one of the biggest opportunities of his career nearly killed him.

Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. During production, however, he became seriously ill after being exposed to aluminum dust used in the character’s makeup.

He was hospitalized and ultimately replaced in the movie by actor Jack Haley.

According to Kiki, the studio described what happened as an allergic reaction, but she said the situation was far more serious.

“It wasn’t an allergy, it was toxic,” she said.

The devastating setback could have ended Ebsen’s Hollywood dreams.

Instead, he kept going.

After leaving MGM, Ebsen continued working in films and television before finally landing the role that would make him a household name.

In 1962, at the age of 54, he was cast as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.

The wildly popular sitcom followed the Clampett family after they struck oil and moved from the Ozarks to glamorous Beverly Hills. The show became a television sensation and ran for nine seasons.

After The Beverly Hillbillies ended, Ebsen proved he was far from finished.

He scored another major television hit with Barnaby Jones, playing an aging private investigator who returned to work after his son was murdered.

By then, Ebsen had achieved the kind of financial success he could only have dreamed about during his struggling days in New York.

But his daughter said fame and money never completely changed him.

“It wasn’t a lavish lifestyle that we grew up in,” Kiki recalled. “He believed if you want something badly enough, you have to work hard to get it.”

Ebsen also found happiness later in his personal life.

After two divorces, the actor married his third wife, Dorothy, when he was 77 years old.

“He was very happy toward the end of his life with Dorothy,” Kiki said. “They traveled and enjoyed the wisdom of many decades gone by.”

Kiki eventually turned her complicated but loving relationship with her famous father into a cabaret-style jazz production called My Buddy.

She admitted the two did not always agree, especially when it came to her own musical career.

Buddy hoped his daughter would pursue jazz singing. Instead, Kiki initially rebelled and joined a rock band.

Years later, she finally embraced the music her father had encouraged her to perform and used her show to honor his memory.

Some of her fondest memories were not about Hollywood at all.

She remembered her father helping her bottle-feed baby mice and comforting her when she became nervous before a piano recital.

During one anxious moment, Ebsen pointed toward the stars and offered his daughter a lesson she never forgot.

“We’re just a speck on a speck in the sky,” he told her. “Don’t worry. It’s OK.”

Kiki said her father always seemed to know how to put life’s problems into perspective.

“He had a great way of putting things in perspective, knowing that life’s not an easy journey,” she said.

“I miss that.”