He had virtually no acting experience when he was cast as Wally Cleaver in “Leave It to Beaver.” In fact, it was a coach who suggested that Tony accompany him to an acting audition, the boy’s first. Tony was an athletic boy who won swimming and diving competitions. His mother was a stuntwoman in westerns and had been the movie double for the silent screen star Clara Bow. “Leave It to Beaver,” which also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as the boys’ polished, suburban-perfect parents, was on the air from 1957 to 1963, but it endured far longer, in endless reruns and as a pop culture touchstone for the baby boom generation.Īnthony Lee Dow was born in Hollywood on April 13, 1945, the son of John Stevens Dow, a designer and contractor, and Muriel Virginia (Montrose) Dow. As he observed at the end of one episode, “For a little kid like that, a lot of stuff sure goes on in his head.” And, “Will you stop being nice to me and just go back to being a little creep?”īut when he was talking to his parents, Wally was more thoughtful. “What did you go and do that for?” he’d ask. Wally played Chinese checkers with his brother in their room, sometimes went along with his friend Eddie Haskell’s misguided pranks and was young enough in the first season to ask, “Dad, if I saved up my allowance, could I buy a monkey?”Īnd he would never “squeal on” the Beav, unless he had to.Īs the seasons passed, Wally matured, capturing the attention of adolescent female viewers, but his attitude toward his brother remained largely unchanged. Wally was a good student, polite to his elders and a responsible good guy “dripping with decency and honesty,” as Brian Levant, executive producer of the 1980s sequel series “The New Leave It to Beaver,” described him to The Arizona Republic in 2017.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |