Tony Dow, who as Wally Cleaver on the sitcom “Leave It to Beaver” helped create the popular and lasting image of the American teenager of the 1950s and 60s, died Wednesday. He was 77.
Frank Bilotta, who represented Dow in his work as a sculptor, confirmed his death in an email to The Associated Press.
Dow's Wally was an often annoyed but essentially loving big brother who was constantly bailing out the title character, Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, played by Jerry Mathers, on the show that was synonymous with the sometimes hokey, wholesome image of the 1950s American family. On the show, Wally, sometimes the center of the plot himself, navigated the worlds of junior high and high school - his two-faced best friend Eddie Haskell at his side - with just a little more wisdom than his little brother. The show's plotlines suggested Wally was bound for great things - he mentions wanting to become an aerospace engineer - and he tended to find himself in moral dilemmas that stemmed from his essential goodness.
Dow's death leaves Mathers and Rusty Stevens, who played Beaver's friend Larry Mondello, as the only surviving members of the show's core cast. Beaumont died in 1982. Barbara Billingsley, who played mother June Cleaver, died in 2010. Ken Osmond, who played Haskell, died in 2020.
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