

#Wally leave it to beaver series#
He also directed episodes of series like "Harry and the Hendersons," "Coach" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
#Wally leave it to beaver tv#
"I think people should take the leap of faith that they can feel better," he said.ĭow continued to work in Hollywood, taking parts in TV series and even reprising his role in "The New Leave It to Beaver" in the 1980s. He channeled that hope into art, too, sculpting ornate pieces at his home studio. But I'm just one of millions."ĭow told CBS that once he accepted his diagnosis and began treatment, he found hope. "You know, the fact that I was in a TV program that epitomized the supposed ideal world of the '50s, and here I'm suffering from depression. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as Beaver's parents, June and Ward. "I realize there's a perceived irony about this," he told the Baltimore Sun of his depression in 1993. Leave It to Beaver is an American television sitcom broadcast between 19 about an inquisitive and often nave boy, Theodore 'The Beaver' Cleaver ( Jerry Mathers ), and his adventures at home, school, and around his suburban neighborhood. In 1993, he was an honorary speaker at a convention for the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association. "It's sad to be famous at 12 years old or something, and then you grow up and become a real person, and nothing's happened for you," he told CBS.ĭow, who said he experienced undiagnosed depression from age 20 to age 40, spoke out for decades about his mental health challenges, long before it was common for celebrities to disclose that information publicly. Wally Cleaver, the straight-arrow teenage son, star athlete and Boy Scout, became inextricably tied to Dow, who said he struggled to stand on his own. In a January interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Dow recalled learning over a hamburger and malt that he was offered the part after auditioning on a whim. No cause of death was shared, but Dow revealed in May he had been diagnosed with cancer.ĭow was thrust into stardom at age 12, when he was cast on the soon-to-be-smash sitcom "Leave It to Beaver." In the role, Dow helped create the archetype of a suburban nuclear family and became a household name to millions of viewers. Dow famously played the Beaver's older brother Wally on the classic 1950s-60s sitcom 'Leave it To Beaver.' (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) (Gray News) - Tony Dow, the actor who played Wally Cleaver in the hit 1950s television show Leave It to Beaver, is in hospice care and in his last hours, his son said Tuesday.
