'Green Acres' star Tom Lester dies from complications of Parkinson's disease at age 81
Actor Tom Lester died at the age of 81 on Monday, April 20. Lester reportedly died of complications from Parkinson’s disease in the Nashville, Tennessee, home of his fiancée and long-term caregiver Jackie Peters.
Speaking to Fox News, actor Gary Moore said, “Tom Lester was a great friend of mine. We met over 20 years ago and stayed friends all these years. I started taking Tom to autograph shows because so many fans wanted to meet him. I’ve stayed at his house on his farm which he called ‘Green Acres’. He’s been to my house and signed pictures of Arnold the Pig for my four boys.”
“He would often call me every week and he would pray with me,” Moore further said. “We laughed all the time. I saw Tom last month in Nashville, and I got to hear him say 'Golly' one more time then I prayed with him. He met Jesus in Heaven today and looked around and I know he said, 'Golly, this is even better than you told me!'”
Lester was born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 23, 1938, and was brought up on his grandfather's farm. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, majoring in chemistry. For a while, he taught science and biology at a school in Purcell, Oklahoma, before moving to Hollywood.
Lester, in an old interview, once recalled how no one at home thought he would make it in Hollywood. “I told them I was going out to Hollywood to become an actor and they all said, ‘You’re crazy. You’ll never be able to do that. You’re too tall, too skinny, too ugly. You’ve got a Southern accent and you’ll never make it in the motion picture business. You don’t look like Rock Hudson.’”
He was most famous for his role as Eb Dawson in the ‘60s television series ‘Green Acres’. Incidentally, he played the same character on two other shows, ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘Petticoat Junction’.
The role found him through a drama coach named Lurene Tuttle, who was known as the “First Lady of Radio”. Tuttle helped him get cast in plays that put him onstage with Linda Kaye, the daughter of Paul Henning, creator of ‘Petticoat Junction’. From there, he built a rapport with Henning which soon translated into his role on ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’.
Lester’s last appearance on the big screen was in a 2014 film called ‘Campin’ Buddies’.