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Christian Rudolph "Buddy" Ebsen Jr. (April 2, 1908 - July 6, 2003) was the actor who was originally cast as the Tin Man in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz.

At the time production of the movie began, Ebsen was in the second year of his second two-year contract with MGM, and was making $1500 per week. He was a talented dancer who already had a noteworthy career on the stage. By 1939 he had appeared in eight films, including one where he danced with Judy Garland in the finale to Broadway Melody of 1938. He was originally intended for the role of the Scarecrow, but was cast as the Tin Man. He was involved in early filming in October 1938 but only ten days into the filming on the 21st, he suffered a severe toxic reaction from breathing the aluminum dust used in the character's makeup. He was hospitalized for two weeks, and recuperated at home for a month after.

Buddy Ebsen Tin Man 2

Ebsen in the tinman costume

Ebsen was replaced by Jack Haley, and aluminum paste was substituted for aluminum dust in the Tin Man's makeup. All of the scenes in which Ebsen appeared were re-shot with Haley, so that Ebsen does not appear in the finished film; yet his voice occurs at one point in the soundtrack, when he, Ray Bolger, and Judy Garland along with Bert Lahr sing "We're Off to See the Wizard" after the Tin Man has been lubricated back to life.

Buddy-ebsen-tin-man

Ebsen in original Tinman makeup

Ebsen returned to the MGM studio on December 13, not to work on the Oz project but on a movie called Four Girls in White.

Buddy Ebsen as Tin Man

Deleted scene with Tinman Ebsen

He went on to a long career, and achieved late fame in the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones. Ironically, although the makeup mishap nearly cost him his life, Ebsen outlived all the credited cast members of the film by many years, with only a couple Munchkin actors and extras outliving him. In 1994 his memoir was entitled The Other Side of Oz.

Fictionalized[]

Curiously, Ebsen was eventually turned into a fictional character: he meets Dorothy Gale, Betsy Bobbin, and Trot in March Laumer's The Vegetable Man of Oz (1990).

References[]

  • John Fricke, Jay Scarfone, William Stillman. The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History. Warner Books, 1989.
  • Aljean Harmetz. The Making of the Wizard of Oz. New York, Knopf, 1977.

External Links[]

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