Eugene Tracy Twombly (April 27, 1914 – October 17, 1968) was a

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

technician in

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and motion pictures.

Early life

Eugene Twombly was born in California in 1914 to Ralph H. and Marie L. Twombly (née Tracy; 1892–1958). He was the eldest of two children with a younger brother, Ralph Jr. (born 1922), and of partial

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

ancestry from his paternal grandmother.

Career

He is best known for his sound work on ''

The Jack Benny Program ''The Jack Benny Program'', starring Jack Benny, is a radio and television comedy series. The show ran for over three decades, from 1932 to 1955 on radio, and from 1950 to 1965 on television. It won numerous awards, including the 1959 and 19 ...

'', where his wife, actress Bea Benaderet, played telephone operator Gertrude Gearshift. Other works included Arch Oboler's '' Lights Out'', '' The Stan Freberg Show'', ''

The Gene Autry Show ''The Gene Autry Show'' is an American western/cowboy television series which aired for 91 episodes on CBS from July 23, 1950 until August 7, 1956, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum. Overview Series star Gene Autry h ...

,'' '' The Whistler'', and ''When the West Was Young'', and a collaboration with

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...

and Frank Buxton on ''The Bill Cosby Radio Program'', which aired 145 episodes from January to July 1968. ''The Jack Benny Program'' included occasional references to "Twombly, the sound-effects man," and Mel Blanc voiced a character called "George Twombly" who often interrupted Benny and his cast with impromptu sound effects. In the 1962 first season of ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor backwoods family ...

'' (where Benaderet had a recurring role as Cousin Pearl Bodine), two consecutive episodes, "The Clampetts Get Psychoanalyzed" and "The Psychiatrist Gets Clampetted," featured a psychiatrist named "Dr. Eugene Twombly" who was played by Herbert Rudley.

Personal life and death

Gene Twombly was Bea Benaderet's second husband and the stepfather of actor Jack Bannon, and they resided in Calabasas,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He died of a heart attack at age 54 on October 17, 1968, four days after her death from pneumonia and lung cancer and one day after her funeral. They are interred together at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in

North Hollywood North Hollywood is a neighborhood and district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...

References

External links

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Find-a-Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twombly, Eugene 1914 births 1968 deaths Place of birth missing American special effects people Burials at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery