I’m sure it’s just our attempt to put order on statistical chaos, but it seems as if celebrity deaths come in clumps. The latest in this clump is Tony Dow, best known to us Boomers as wally Cleaver on :Leave It To Beaver He didn’t have any other roles I’m familiar with (he reprised it in later years). I didn’t know that he’d directed several episodes of TV series (including Deep Space Nine), or that he’d suffered from depression.
I think this leaves Jerry Mathers as the last surviving cast member.
I remember he and Mathers appeared on I think it was Diagnosis Murder as a pair of businessmen. ;He had kind of a tough role, being the second banana to Mathers.
Another Baby Boomer icon gone. I was surprised to read he’d never acted before being cast as Wally Cleaver. From all accounts, he went on to live a normal, everyday life after the series ended, avoiding the pitfalls that child actors often encountered once the business had rejected them as too old. From what everyone says, he was a genuinely nice guy.
ABC News posted " Editor’s Note : A story saying Tony Dow had died was published based on an incorrect statement from his agent confirming the actor’s death. The post from the agent has since been deleted. Los Angeles ABC station KABC has confirmed the agent’s post was incorrect."
