File photo shows, from left, Tony Dow as Wally, Barbara Billingsley as June, Hugh Beaumont as Ward and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver, the cast of the television series “Leave It to Beaver.”
LOS ANGELES — “Leave It to Beaver” star Tony Dow is not dead, according to his family members.
Dow’s death was widely reported Tuesday morning, including in the L.A. Times, until his wife and son told CBS and Fox, respectively, that Dow was still alive. Both said that the famed actor was in hospice, with his son Christopher telling Fox that his father was “in his last hours.”
“This is a difficult time,” Christopher Dow told Fox. “Yes he is still alive but in his last hours. Under hospice care.”
Lauren Dow spoke Tuesday with George Pennacchio of ABC7, who said she was “understandably distraught and grief-stricken.” Pennacchio said Tony Dow experienced some health issues overnight, leading Lauren to imply he had passed away while speaking to people close to her.
Saying she’s been “a little fuzzy” with the grief surrounding the moment, Lauren told Pennacchio she felt “foolish” and apologized for the miscommunication.
“She told me she now feels ‘foolish’ about what has transpired since his death has been reported around the world,” Pennacchio wrote. “She also told me, through her pain, ‘It is of my own doing.’ I told her we know it’s been a very stressful time and people understand overwhelming grief. Lauren says she ‘loves and adores’ her husband of 42 years with all of her heart.”
Speculation that the “Leave It to Beaver” star had died began after his management team wrote in a since-deleted post on Dow’s Facebook page that he had passed away at the age of 77. A cause of death wasn’t given in the post, although there was a report that he had died of complications from liver cancer.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share with you the passing of our beloved Tony this morning,” his management team wrote in the since-deleted post. “Tony was a beautiful soul — kind, compassionate, funny and humble. It was truly a joy to just be around him. His gentle voice and unpretentious manner was immediately comforting and you could not help but love him.
“The world has lost an amazing human being, but we are all richer for the memories that he has left us,” the statement continued. “From the warm reminiscences of Wally Cleaver to those of us fortunate enough to know him personally — thank you Tony. And thank you for the reflections of a simpler time, the laughter, the friendship and for the feeling that you were a big brother to us all.”
But Tuesday afternoon, Dow’s page posted an update that clarified that he was still alive but was “not doing well.”
“This morning Tony’s wife Lauren, who was very distraught, had notified us that Tony had passed and asked that we notify all his fans,” the page wrote. “As we are sure you can understand, this has been a very trying time for her. We have since received a call from Tony’s daughter-in-law saying that while Tony is not doing well, he has not yet passed. Tony’s son Christopher and his daughter-in-law Melissa have also been by his side comforting him, and we will keep you posted on any future updates.”
Dow was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, and his wife announced in May that it had returned.
Dow beamed his way into televisions across America at the age of 12 when he was cast to play Wally Cleaver on “Leave It to Beaver.” The show ran from 1957 to 1963 and is considered one of television’s classics.
Jerry Mathers, who played Cleaver’s younger brother Theodore (aka Beaver), wrote a tribute to Dow in 2015 for his 70th birthday, comparing his real-life family to that of the famed TV show.
“As most people know, Tony Dow was my big brother on Leave it to Beaver,” Mathers wrote. “Ironically, he was really ‘the Beaver’ in his real life family because he only had an older brother and he was the youngest. I on the other hand was the eldest of my four siblings so I actually was the ‘Wally’ in my real family.”
But Dow might have never landed the role were it not for someone else’s teenage growth spurt, Mathers added. Dow wasn’t in the original pilot for the show, which was called “It’s a Small World.” It was only when the original Wally shot up in height before production began that producers searched for a shorter star.
“The boy who played Wally grew about 5 inches between the time the pilot was filmed and [when] we went into production of the series,” Mathers wrote. “He was almost as tall as Hugh Beaumont [who played father Ward Cleaver] so the producers decided to put out another casting call for a boy who was more height appropriate for that age. Tony’s true life ability as an athlete was a perfect fit for Wally, he was cast for the part, and the rest is television history!”
Dow went on to appear on several other shows before breaking from acting to serve in the U.S. National Guard from 1965 to 1968. He made his directorial debut with an episode of “The New Lassie” in 1989. He also made a career in sculpting, with one of his pieces even landing in the Louvre.
“There’s a lot of remnants of wood things, trees and whatnot,” he told the L.A. Times in 2008 around the sculpture’s debut. “I tend to find burly kinds of pieces, roots and things, and bring them home. Some of the prettiest pieces seem to come from burned wood. There’s a little bit of that blackness left in – it has a warmth to it.”
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