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Nancy Jane Kulp (August 28, 1921 – February 3, 1991) was an American actress best known to television viewers as "Miss Jane Hathaway" on The Beverly Hillbillies.
She was born into an upper middle class family in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After attending Florida State University and the University of Miami, she volunteered for service in World War II in the Navy's WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) earning several decorations.
She moved to Hollywood to work in a studio publicity department, but director George Cukor convinced her that she should work in front of the camera.
Thus began a career as a character actor. Her movie debut was in 1951 in The Company She Keeps. She appeared in such films as Shane, Sabrina and A Star Is Born. In 1955 she joined the cast of The Bob Cummings Show. She returned to movies in Forever, Darling, The Three Faces of Eve and The Parent Trap, before The Beverly Hillbillies made her so well-known.
In 1984, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from Pennsylvania, but was ultimately unsuccessful, due in part to her Hillbillies co-star Buddy Ebsen's support of her Republican opponent, incumbent Bud Shuster. Ebsen went so far as to tape an ad for Kulp's opponent, labeling her as "too liberal." Kulp was bitter because Ebsen, claimed she was exploiting her celebrity and didn't know the issues, when he was a Californian and a much bigger celebrity than she.
At the age of 67, Kulp came out of the closet and announced that she was a lesbian. She admitted to "swinging both ways."
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[[She was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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