Beatrice “Bea” Benaderet (April 4, 1906, New York City, USA – October 13, 1968, Los Angeles, California, USA) was an American actress born in New York City and reared in San Francisco, California. Her major breaks in radio came on The Jack Benny Program and as a member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre repertory company. She appeared in a wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley, supporting roles as Blanche Morton in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and as the original voice of Betty Rubble during the first four seasons of The Flintstones, and in The Beverly Hillbillies as Pearl Bodine. She did a great deal of voice work in Warner Bros. animated cartoons of the 1940s and early 1950s, most famously as Granny.
Beatrice Benaderet was born on April 4, 1906, in New York City. Her mother, Margaret (née O'Keefe), was Irish American, and her father, Samuel David Benaderet, a Turkish Sephardic emigrant, was a tobacconist who relocated the family from New York to San Francisco in 1915 after his participation in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The same year, he opened a smoke shop that operated for 65 years, making it the oldest such retailer in California at the time of its closure in 1980.
Benaderet voiced numerous female characters in the Warner Bros. animated shorts of the 1940s, including "Granny," the sometimes dimwitted, sometimes assertive owner of Tweety. She performed the voice of Granny until 1955, when she was succeeded by June Foray. She also portrayed Little Red Riding Hood as a loud, obnoxious teenager in the 1944 Bugs Bunny cartoon Little Red Riding Rabbit. Bea Benaderet also voiced "The Flintstones" Betty Rubble from seasons one (1960) to four before resigning in 1964 due to the workload on Petticoat Junction.
| Year | Image | Character | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 
|
Delores | Daffy Duck's Quackbusters |
| 1960-1964 | 
|
Betty Rubble | The Flintstones |
| 1960-1964 | 
|
Dressmaker | The Flintstones |
| 1960-1964 | 
|
Girl #1 | The Flintstones |
| 1960-1964 | 
|
Girl #2 | The Flintstones |
| 1960-1964 | 
|
Radio Voice | The Flintstones |
| 1950-1955 | 
|
Granny | Looney Tunes |