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Nancy Jane Kulp (August 28, 1921 – February 3, 1991) was an American character actor, writer and comedian widely known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies.
In 1943, Kulp graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University). She continued her studies for a master's degree in English and French at the University of Miami, where she was a member of the sorority Pi Beta Phi. Early in the 1940s, she also worked as a feature writer for the Miami Beach Tropics newspaper, writing profiles of celebrities such as Clark Gable and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Kulp appeared on I Love Lucy in the 1956 episode "Lucy Meets the Queen", performing as an English maid, who shows Lucy and Ethel how to curtsy properly before Queen Elizabeth. Kulp also appeared in episodes of The Real McCoys, Perry Mason ("The Case of the Prodigal Parent", 1958, and "The Case of the Deadly Toy", 1959), The Jack Benny Program ("Don's 27th Anniversary with Jack"), 87th Precinct ("Killer's Choice"), Pete and Gladys, The Twilight Zone (as Mrs. Gann in "The Fugitive"), and Outlaws ("The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid, Esquire"). Kulp portrayed a slurring-drunk waitress in a scene with James Garner and Jean Willes in the 1959 Maverick episode "Full House". She played a housekeeper in a television pilot for The William Bendix Show, which aired as the 1960–1961 season finale of CBS's Mister Ed under the title "Pine Lake Lodge". On the series My Three Sons in 1962, she portrayed a high school math and science teacher in two episodes under different character names, Miss Harris and Miss Fisher. "Robbie Valentino" and "The Big Game", My Three Sons (S02E21 and S02E24), episodes originally broadcast respectively on February 22 and March 15, 1962. Internet Movie Database (IMDb), an affiliate of Amazon.com, Seattle Washington. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
Shortly after her performances on My Three Sons in 1962, Kulp landed her breakout role as Jane Hathaway, the love-starved, bird-watching, perennial spinster, on the CBS television series The Beverly Hillbillies. In 1967, she received an Emmy Award nomination for her role, and she remained with the show until its cancellation in 1971. In 1978, she appeared on The Love Boat in the episode "Mike and Ike / The Witness / The Kissing Bandit" and she played Aunt Gertrude in the episode "Tony and Julie / Separate Beds / America's Sweetheart". On April 7, 1989, she played a nun in the Quantum Leap season 1 episode "The Right Hand of God". Kulp also appeared on The Brian Keith Show and Sanford and Son.
To her dismay, her Hillbillies co-star Buddy Ebsen, an ardent Republican, contacted the Shuster campaign and volunteered to make a radio campaign ad in which he called Kulp "Liberalism". Kulp and Ebsen had a somewhat frosty relationship on set in part because of their sharp political differences. Later, Kulp said of Ebsen, "He's not the kindly old Jed Clampett that you saw on the show ... It's none of his business and he should have stayed out of it." She said Ebsen and she "didn't get along because I found him difficult to work with. But I never would have done something like this to him." Garnering 59,449 votes—just 33.6% of the ballots cast in the election—to Shuster's 117,203 votes and 66.4%, she lost. After this, according to her close friends and family, Ebsen was regarded as persona non grata to Kulp and she made it clear to people not to bring him up in conversation around her with the exception of interviews related to her time on Hillbillies. In his later years, especially after Kulp's death, Ebsen privately expressed remorse for doing the ad and they only reconciled shortly before Kulp's death.
After her defeat, she worked at Juniata College, a private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, as an artist-in-residence. Later she taught acting.
After her retirement from acting and teaching, she moved first to a farm in Connecticut and later to Palm Springs, California, where she became involved in several charity organizations, including the Humane Society of the Desert, the Desert Theatre League, and United Cerebral Palsy.
Later, Nancy Kulp gave an interview to author and LGBTQ activist Boze Hadleigh, for his book "Hollywood Lesbians" in which she said,
As long as you reproduce my reply word for word, and the question, you may use it ... I'd appreciate it if you'd let me phrase the question. There is more than one way. Here's how I would ask it: "Do you think that opposites attract?" My own reply would be that I'm the other sort—I find that birds of a feather flock together. That answers your question.
| 1951 | The Model and the Marriage Broker | Hazel Gingras | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Steel Town | Dolores | |
| The Marrying Kind | Edie | Uncredited | |
| 1953 | Shane | Mrs. Howells | |
| The Caddy | Emma | Uncredited | |
| Here Come the Girls | Washwoman | Uncredited | |
| 1954 | Sabrina | Jenny, maid | Uncredited |
| A Star is Born | Esther's neighbor in rooming house | Uncredited | |
| 1955 | The Shrike | Mrs. Coleman | Uncredited |
| Not as a Stranger | Deirdre | Uncredited | |
| You're Never Too Young | Marty's Mother | ||
| Count Three and Pray | Matty Miller | ||
| 1956 | Anything Goes | A bobby soxer | Uncredited |
| Forever, Darling | Amy | ||
| 1957 | Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend | Cleaning Woman | Uncredited |
| God Is My Partner | Maxine Spelvana | ||
| The Three Faces of Eve | Mrs. Black | ||
| Kiss Them for Me | WAVE Telephone Operator | Uncredited | |
| 1958 | The High Cost of Loving | Miss Matthews, Cave's Secretary | Uncredited Cameo appearance |
| 1959 | Five Gates to Hell | Susette | |
| 1961 | The Parent Trap | Miss Grunecker | |
| The Last Time I Saw Archie | Miss Willoughby | Uncredited | |
| The Two Little Bears | Emily Wilkins | ||
| 1962 | Moon Pilot | Space Flight Nutritionist | Uncredited |
| 1963 | Who's Minding the Store? | Emily Rothgraber | |
| 1964 | The Patsy | Helen, Theatergoer | |
| 1965 | Strange Bedfellows | Aggressive Woman | |
| 1966 | The Night of the Grizzly | Wilhelmina Peterson | |
| 1970 | The Aristocats | Frou-Frou | Voice |
| 1954 | Lux Video Theatre | Daisy | "To Each His Own" |
| Topper | "The Seance" | ||
| December Bride | Louella | "Lily Hires a Maid" | |
| 1955–1959 | The Bob Cummings Show | Pamela Livingstone | 15 episodes |
| 1955 | It's a Great Life | Mrs. Bell | "The Missing Stamp" |
| The Life of Riley | Charlotte Lindsay | "Love Comes to Waldo Binney" | |
| Svengali and the Blonde | Honorine | TV movie | |
| Schlitz Playhouse | 2 episodes | ||
| Topper | Mrs. Bandle | "The Neighbors" | |
| TV Reader's Digest | Ruth | "Around the Horn to Matrimony" | |
| Schlitz Playhouse | "The Girl Who Scared Men Off" | ||
| The Life of Riley | Charlotte Lindsay | "Waldo's Mother" | |
| It's a Great Life | Gloria | "The Crystal Ball" | |
| General Electric Theater | Miss Lamb | "The Seeds of Hate" | |
| 1956 | It's a Great Life | Anastasia | "Beauty Contest" |
| I Love Lucy | Maid | "Lucy Meets the Queen" | |
| Navy Log | "Web Feet" | ||
| It's a Great Life | Girl | "Kid Sister" | |
| Fireside Theatre | "Shoot the Moon" | ||
| December Bride | Florence | "Lily the Matchmaker" | |
| Cheyenne | Waitress | "Johnny Bravo" | |
| The Gale Storm Show | Helga Petersen | "Passenger Incognito" | |
| Our Miss Brooks | Lucretia Hannibal | (3 episodes) | |
| The 20th Century Fox Hour | Miss Gillis | "The Hefferan Family" | |
| The Red Skelton Show | Witch | "The Magic Shoes" | |
| The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet | Nancy | "The Balloons" | |
| Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Nurse | Season 2 Episode 10: "Jonathan" (credited but does not appear) | |
| 1957 | Date with the Angels | Dolly Cates | (4 episodes) |
| The Thin Man | Desk clerk, uncredited cameo | "The Angel Biz" | |
| 1958 | The Loretta Young Show | Helen | "Dear Milkman" |
| Perry Mason | Sarah Winslow | "The Case of the Prodigal Parent" | |
| Cheyenne (TV series) | Waitress, uncredited | "Noose at Noon" | |
| Colgate Theatre | Aggie | "Adventures of a Model" | |
| Stella Morgan, credited as Nancy Culp | "The Fountain of Youth | ||
| The Real McCoys | Harriet Reynolds | "The Dancin' Fool" | |
| 77 Sunset Strip | Landlady | "Casualty" | |
| 1959 | December Bride | Librarian | "The Hi-Fi Show" |
| The Dennis O'Keefe Show | Miss Mansfield | "Teacher's Pest" | |
| Playhouse 90 | Leona | "A Marriage of Strangers" | |
| Perry Mason | Katherine Collins | "The Case of the Deadly Toy" | |
| Maverick | Waitress, uncredited | "Full House" | |
| Sunday Showcase | Girl at Well | "The Milton Berle Special" | |
| 1960 | Bourbon Street Beat | Emma St. John | "Kill with Kindness" |
| The Gale Storm Show | Gertrude | "Captain Courageous" | |
| The Comedy Spot | "Adventures of a Model" | ||
| 1961 | Shirley Temple's Storybook | Guardian | "The Little Mermaid" |
| Mister Ed | Martha | "Pine Lake Lodge" | |
| Pete and Gladys | Miss Hotchkiss | "Gladys' Political Campaign" | |
| The Jack Benny Program | Elocution Teacher | "Don's 27th Anniversary with Jack" | |
| 1962 | Outlaws | Jennifer Veasy | "The Dark Sunrise of Griff Kincaid" |
| Pete and Gladys | Vickie | "Office Wife" | |
| 87th Precinct | Miss Fitzhenry | "Killer's Choice" | |
| The Twilight Zone | Agnes Gann | "The Fugitive" | |
| The Danny Thomas Show | Mrs. Keltner | "The P.T.A. Bash" | |
| The Joey Bishop Show | "A Man's Best Friend" | ||
| My Three Sons | Miss Harris | "Robbie Valentino" | |
| General Electric Theater | Miss Lamb | "The Free Wheelers" | |
| My Three Sons | Miss Fisher | "The Big Game" | |
| The Jack Benny Program | Jeanette | "Alexander Hamilton Show" | |
| King of Diamonds | Sergeant Vadolski | "Backlash" | |
| Hawaiian Eye | Edie Barnes | "'V' is for Victim" | |
| The Comedy Spot | Woman | "The Soft Touch" | |
| Ernestine | Woman | Made-for-TV movie. | |
| The Lucy Show | Jane Corey | "Lucy Becomes an Astronaut" | |
| 1962–71 | The Beverly Hillbillies | Jane Hathaway | 246 episodes |
| 1963 | 77 Sunset Strip | Eloise | "The Checkmate Caper" |
| 1966 | Password | Herself | Game show contestant / Celebrity guest star |
| 1968 | Petticoat Junction | Jane Hathaway | "A Cake from Granny" |
| 1971 | Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In | "Ver-r-r-ry Interesting" | |
| 1973–74 | The Brian Keith Show | Mrs. Gruber | (8 episodes) |
| 1975–76 | Sanford and Son | May Hopkins | (5 episodes) |
| 1978 | The Love Boat | Gert | "Mike and Ike / The Witness / The Kissing Bandi" |
| 1979 | CHiPs | Herself, uncredited | "" |
| The Love Boat | Sylvia McTigue | "Spider Serenade, The / Next Door Wife / Harder They Fall" | |
| 1981 | Aunt Gert | "Tony and Julie / Separate Beds / America's Sweetheart" | |
| Return of the Beverly Hillbillies | Jane Hathaway | Made-for-TV movie directed by Robert M. Leeds. | |
| 1983 | The Wilder Summer | Camp Director | Made-for-TV movie directed by Deborah Reinisch. |
| Fantasy Island | Mrs. Potroy | "Revenge of the Forgotten / Charo" | |
| 1986 | Simon & Simon | Shirley Graham | "Still Phil After All These Years" |
| Scarecrow and Mrs. King | Dr. Claudia Joyce | "Billy's Lost Weekend" | |
| 1989 | Quantum Leap | Sister Sarah | Episode: "The Right Hand of God" (S 1:Ep 4) |
| ABC Afterschool Special | Aurora | "Private Affairs", final appearance |
| 1980–81 | Morning's at Seven | Aaronetta Gibbs | Lyceum Theatre (April 10, 1980 August 16, 1981) | |
| +List of acting awards and nominations | ||||||
| 1967 ! scope="row" | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | The Beverly Hillbillies | Jane Hathaway | ||
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