Leave It To Beaver actor Tony Dow made headlines this week after his death was announced in error, prompting fans to wonder about some of the other surviving members of the classic sitcom’s cast. Sadly, Tony has since died, reports TMZ.
Earlier this week, a statement was released on the actor’s Facebook page, which announced Dow had passed away. The post was later removed when it was confirmed that Tony was still alive.
The actor’s manager said Tony’s wife Lauren, who was very distraught at the time, had believed he was dead. He was under hospice care at the time and has since sadly passed away.
Following the reports, fans have looked back on his career, including his role in the classic sitcom Leave It To Beaver. Amid the curiosity about his role on the show, some have wondered which Leave It To Beaver cast members are still alive. Let’s take a look…
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Tony Dow dies at age 77
On Tuesday (July 26), a statement was released to inform fans of Tony’s passing.
But it was later revealed that he was still alive and in hospice care. His distraught wife had believed he was dead and had told his management.
At the time, Dow’s son Christopher told Fox Digital News, that his father was “in his last hours, under hospice care.”
Sadly, one day later on July 27 it was confirmed that he had died.
A post on Tony’s Facebook page from his management read: “We have received confirmation from Christopher, Tony’s son, that Tony passed away earlier this morning, with his loving family at his side to see him through this journey.”
Dow was familiar to many for portraying the eldest Cleaver son and practical older brother of the sitcom’s eponymous central character Beaver.
The actor starred in over 200 episodes of the show across the show’s six-year run and reprised the character in other spin-off projects, including the sequel series Still The Beaver in the 80s.
Who is still alive in the cast of Leave it to Beaver?
After the sad passing of Wally actor Tony Dow, fans of the show have wondered about some of the other surviving cast members.
Leave It To Beaver first aired in 1957, with 2022 marking 65 years since the classic hit our screens. The show followed the Cleaver family and the antics of the youngest son Theodore better known under the nickname Beaver.
More than six decades on, while many of its adult cast has passed away, several of its younger cast members are still alive, including Beaver actor Jerry Mathers.
The actors behind some of Wally and Beaver’s friends are also still around, including Pamela Baird, who played Mary Ellen Rogers the girlfriend of Wally, as well as the actor behind Wally’s friend Tooey Brown, Tiger Fafara.
Elsewhere some of the other surviving cast members include the stars behind Beaver’s friends Robert Rusty Stevens (Larry Mondello), Stephen Talbot (Gilbert Bates) and Rich Correll (Richard Rickover), as well as teacher’s, pet Judy Hensler played by actress Jeri Weil.
How old were the cast members during the show?
Leave It To Beaver premiered in October 1957. Wally Cleaver actor Tony Dow born in April 1945, and would have been 12 years old, while his on-screen younger brother Beaver played by Jerry Mathers, would have been just nine.
Pamela Baird (Mary Ellen Rogers) and Tiger Fafara (Tooey Brown) were also born in 1945 and so would have been 12 at the time the sitcom aired too.
The actors behind Beaver’s friends, Robert ‘Rusty’ Stevens (Larry Mondello) and Stephen Talbot (Gilbert Bates), would have been a year younger than Mathers at eight years old.
However, both Richard Correll (Richard Rickover) and Jeri Weil (Judy Hensler) would have both been nine years old.
The classic show came to an end after a six-year run in June 1963. At the time, Dow would have been 18, while Mathers would have been set to celebrate his 16th birthday.
By the end of the show, both Baird and Fafara would have also been 18 years old, while both Correll and Weil were 15 and Stevens and Talbot were 14.