Tony Dow, the sane actor who played “the perfect big brother” Wally Cleaver in the everlasting TV comedy Leave it to Bever and the 1980s sequel, has passed away, his representatives announced after a tumultuous day for his family. He was 77.
Dow died Wednesday morning with his family by his side at his home in Topanga. A message on his official Facebook page read: “We have received confirmation from Christopher, Tony’s son, that Tony passed away earlier this morning, with his loving family by his side to guide him through this journey.”
The post continued: “We know the world is collectively saddened by the loss of this incredible man. He gave us all so much and was loved by so many. One fan said it best: “It’s rare that someone is as widely loved as Tony.” “
A statement from Dow’s son Christopher was also included in the post: “While this is a very sad day, I have comfort and peace that he is in a better place. He was the best father anyone could wish for. He was my coach, my mentor, my voice of reason, my best friend, my best man at my wedding and my hero my wife said something powerful and show what kind of man he was she said “Tony was such a nice man He had such a big heart and I’ve never heard Tony say anything bad or negative about anyone.” “
A post on his official Facebook page from representatives Frank Bilotta and Renee James said Dow, who had battled cancer, had died Tuesday morning, but that was deleted. A few hours later another message said he was still alive:
“This morning Tony’s wife Lauren, who was very distraught, had informed us that Tony had passed away and we asked all his fans to let them know. As you no doubt understand, this has been a very difficult time for her. We have since received a call from Tony’s daughter-in-law who says that although Tony is not well, he has not yet passed. Tony’s son Christopher and his daughter-in-law Melissa were also by his side to comfort him, and we’ll keep you posted on future updates.”
When Leave it to Beaver debuted on CBS in October 1957, Dow was 12 and Wally was just beginning to take an interest in girls. When the show completed its original run on ABC in June 1963, his character had graduated from Mayfield High School and was on his way to college.
In the pilot of the series shot in early 1957, Paul Sullivan portrayed Wally opposite Jerry Mathers as his younger brother, Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, while Barbara Billingsley and Max Showalter (aka Casey Adams) portrayed the parents, June and Ward Cleaver. , played.
“CBS said, ‘Okay, we’ll take the show, but you have to replace the father and the oldest son,’” Dow recalled in a 2018 interview. “They had already watched about 8,000 children from all over and knew everyone. who was there.
“From Screen Gems, they hired a man named Harry Ackerman, who was sort of a classic Hollywood producer. He said. ‘Hey, I just worked with a kid, he’s kinda green, you might want to check him out.’”
The son of a Hollywood stuntwoman, Dow was a swimmer and junior diving champion who had appeared in two pilots for a Tarzan-esque show that Ackerman produced but never aired. While that was his only acting experience, Dow was hired for: Leave it to Bever (just like Hugh Beaumont as his father).
Created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, Leave it to Bever was a real-life family comedy that told stories, not from the parents’ point of view, but from the children’s point of view.
Connelly’s son Jay, then 14, was the model for Wally, and his 8-year-old, Ricky, served as the inspiration for Beaver, the nickname of one of Connelly’s shipmates in the American merchant navy.
“Wally is the perfect big brother,” Mathers said in a 2006 interview for the Television Academy Foundation’s website The Interviews. “He is the champion basketball player, football player. He does everything right. He is a huge letter man. He gets A’s on all his papers. Everyone loves him.”
After six seasons and 234 original episodes – unbelievably, the show has never been off the air since its inception – Dow, Mathers and Billingsley returned for the 1983 CBS television movie Still the beaver, with Wally now a lawyer. (Dow and Mathers also appeared on packages of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes that year.)
It all led to a revival series that lasted four seasons (one on Disney Channel, three on TBS) until 1989.
Dow got his start as a TV director on The new leave it to Beaverand he spent the next twelve years on episodes of other shows such as Harry and the Hendersons, Coach, Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and serve as visual effects supervisor on a 1996 doctor who television movie.
Anthony Lee Dow was born on April 13, 1945 in Los Angeles, the younger of two sons. His mother was Muriel Montrose, a Mack Sennett “bath beauty” and then a stuntwoman who often doubled up for Clara Bow. His father, John, was a general contractor.
Dow trained to become an Olympic athlete and trained at the Hollywood Athletic Club. “There was a lifeguard there who was an actor”, he remembered. “He said to my mom, ‘I’m going to this interview for a show where they’re looking for a father and son. Can Tony come with me because we’re a bit alike?’ He thought maybe that was the only way [he would be hired].
“In the end I got the part and he didn’t, so that was a shame. The show was called Johnny Wildlife, and it would have been the first color series on television about a wildlife photographer and his son. It was way ahead of its time.”
Working on Leave it to Bever “was great,” Dow said. “You always hear stories about all those fights on set. We never had that. They wanted us to be a family as much as possible, to Jerry and I like regular kids.
“They actually asked our parents not to let us watch the show on TV so we wouldn’t get a big head. So there are probably some episodes that I haven’t seen yet… And there was no swearing at all on set, not even from the crew. They wanted to keep it as family-friendly as possible.”
Next Leave it to BeverDow appeared in series such as dr. Kildare, My three sons and Mr Novaku and played a character called Chet on never too young, a Malibu soap opera tailored for teens. He also served in the National Guard — though he refused to carry a weapon of any kind — and attended UCLA and Columbia University.
Later Dow appeared on The Mod Squad, Emergency!, Quincy ME, Knight Rider, Charles the boss and Murder she wrote and portrayed a cop on General Hospital.
After he and Billingsley starred in a production of Come blow your hornDow and Mathers spent 17 months in another dinner theater show called Until then, Stanley before Yet the Beaver beckoned.
Dow hoped the 1997 . to direct Leave it to Bever movie at Universal; when he was turned down, he said he turned down a $1,200 offer to make a cameo. “I don’t think they cared if I was in it or not, it was kind of an insult,” he said.
He married Lauren, his second wife, in June 1980.