12/14/2022 0 Comments Whitey leave it to beaverI sent Jerry Mathers a photo of him and his TV brother “Wally Cleaver” – played by Tony Dow – and he kindly inscribed it and signed a couple of notecards for me. Through my young years, I had often marvelled at the sixties lifestyle portrayed in the oftentimes-hilarious show. Leave It To Beaver was always one of my favorite television shows. I had the wrong address for Art Carney – which I didn’t find out until my Honeymooners photo arrived back at my house nearly ten months later (I thought I had lost it for sure this time). Clint Eastwood responded by having his secretary sign a couple of photos for me which came back on March 31. He was almost as tall as Hugh Beaumont, so the producers decided to put out another casting call for a boy who was more height appropriate for that age.In addition to the autograph request I sent to Shirley Temple on February 25, 1986, I also sent letters to three additional celebrities. The boy who played Wally grew about 5 inches between the time the pilot was filmed and we went into production of the series. He wasn’t in our original pilot which was called It’s a Small World. Tony’s second foray into acting on television was in Leave It to Beaver. Although I had been an actor since the age of 2 years old, Tony’s only acting job prior to Leave It to Beaver was in television pilot. Before Leave It to Beaver, he had hopes of someday competing in the Olympics. He received many accolades and awards through the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) including Junior Olympics diving champion. On his blog, Jerry Mathers revealed an interesting story about how Tony got the part of Wally: “Tony was a phenomenal athlete and had trained to be a swimmer and diver from a very early age. Sadly, he didn’t live long enough to reprise his role of Ward Cleaver in the TV movie Still the Beaver, although the film was dedicated to his memory. They were right there, mourning alongside his family as one.” And those feelings extended to his television family as well. When word got out about his death, the man was remembered by his family and friends, not for his onscreen accomplishments, but rather for the overwhelmingly positive impact that he’d had on each one of them. He was with family visiting his older son, Hunter, in Munich, Germany. He passed away in 1982 from a heart attack. He cared about Hugh Beaumont the man, and even more specifically what was in that man’s heart. Hugh died of a heart attack on May 14, 1982.Ĭomments Dave Sundstrom, “He believed that the God that he had studied all those years, the God that he had preached about, the God that had been there to comfort him, well, he believed that that God didn’t care much about Hugh Beaumont the movie and TV star. They are the parents to three children: Hunter, Kristy and Mark. Hugh married Kathryn Adams Doty in 1941 and they remained so until they divorced in 1974. Hugh and my dad had become friends and he occasionally came to our house to play cards with my father and some of his friends.” I was very glad that he was picked for the role and we had a wonderful friendship for his entire life until he passed away in 1982 from a heart attack. So, when we read a short scene together, we had a good chemistry and Hugh got the part of Ward Cleaver. My mother actually suggested for him to go in for the interview! When I saw him, I was so happy because he was the nice man that I worked with on the Rose Hills shoot. But, when they re-cast the role for the series, Hugh was one of several people brought in for an audition. It’s an old actor’s trick because the sound of laughter and crying are very closely related.’ Sure enough, I tried it and it worked! When we shot the pilot of Leave It to Beaver, Hugh was not the original father. He said, ‘Put your face into your hands and laugh really hard. Hugh asked me if I had ever done that before and I told him no. One thing I remember is that during a scene I was supposed to cry on cue. I was cast with him in a promotional film for Rose Hills Memorial Park. On his official website, Jerry Mathers offers, “I actually worked with Hugh Beaumont even before we started shooting Leave It to Beaver.
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