Ex-TV Director Joseph Depew Dies at 76

Joseph D. Depew, a one-time child film and stage star who was a director of “The Beverly Hillbillies” during most of that show’s 10 years on national television, died Sunday in Escondido where he had retired shortly after the top-rated program went off the air in 1971. He was 76.

Born in New Jersey, Depew started acting in silent films there when he was 4. At the time, most of the nation’s motion picture industry was on the East Coast. As a boy, he also appeared in several Broadway productions of the old Theatre Guild.

He came to Hollywood as an assistant director on several pictures and moved to television in the infancy of the medium. He also was associated with such TV shows as “I Married Joan,” “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show,” “The Bob Cummings Show” and “Hennesey.”

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, eight children and seven grandchildren.