Tony Dow

A mom making dinner while wearing pearls and a boy saying “Gee, Wally,” may sound really hokey today, but when “Leave It To Beaver” first aired 65 years ago, critics really liked it. The show had no clumsy dad, no precocious child stars. Even hardened critics talked about the pilot show’s warmth and sincerity.

Perhaps that’s why there’s been an outpouring of sadness today over confirmation that “Gee, Wally” has died at age 77.

Tony Dow’s presence on screen came naturally as he wasn’t really an actor. He was just an ordinary young guy, albeit one who came into money quickly and was able to buy the things he was interested in. The Valley Times of North Hollywood profiled him in its issue of July 18, 1960.

TONY DOW
Young Star Has Many Interests
By ALAN CLIBURN
Tony Dow may be one of the stars of the weekly "Leave It to Beaver" television series, but that's one thing he doesn't talk about around the house.
Things he does discuss include his new boat, water skiing, trampoling, music, drums, his go-cart and girls.
Don't get the idea, however, that "Beaver" isn't important to Tony. It's just that when you're at the studio eight hours a day, sign 1,000 fan pictures and learn a new script every week, you like to do other things when you aren't working.
At 15, Tony's a boy with varied interests, and while acting may earn him a handsome livelihood, it's only one of the activities he participates in vigorously.
He's a student, too, and studies voice and piano in addition to the regular educational requirements for the Los Angeles City School System.
Tony lives In Van Nuys with his parents in a home they have owned for more than 30 years. The rustic informality of the Dow residence matches and complements the casual, friendly atmosphere of the family. His parents are John Dow Jr., a builder and contractor, and Muriel Montrose Dow, a former actress.
Although he doesn't enjoy performing for guests, Tony did agree to a few noisy duets at the piano, and his unusual chord stylings give a modern sound to such oldies as "Has Anybody Seen My Gal" and "Up a Lazy As River." On solo numbers, he played the melody with the left hand and accompaniment with the right.
One thing evident in all that Tony does is his inherent rhythm. Whether playing piano or listening to his many albums, that natural beat is there, with toes tapping and fingers snapping.
He doesn't talk about his own achievements, but Mrs. Dow said that Tony was an excellent acrobatic dancer a few years ago, as well as being a Junior Olympics diving champ and expert trampolinist.
Presently, everything else is taking a back seat to Tony's new 16 foot blue and white boat. "It's so smooth on water," Tony said, "I can hardly wait to take it to Catalina." (Tony and Mrs. Dow are now vacationing on the Island, where they are buying a house.)

Before the boat, Tony's main mechanical interest was his sleek and beautiful go-cart, which is a mass of highly polished chrome with candied apple red paint and pin striping on the body. Girls is a popular subject with just about any teenage boy and Tony is no exception. He meets and dates many young actresses from "Leave It to Beaver," but his current heart throb is a non-professional and lives in the Valley.
How about going steady? "I went steady once for 40 minutes," Tony said. "That was about five years ago. I asked her to go steady when we were ordering dinner at a restaurant and broke up when the waitress gave me the bill!"
Not only does Tony like girls, but apparently they like him, too. Mrs. Dow confided that besides the 1,000 picture requests each week, the phone is in constant use. One group of girls called to ask if Tony uses one of the new synthetic tanning lotions. He doesn't.
Future plans for Tony include staying with the "Beaver" series and continuing with his voice and piano studies. "Tony can do anything he wants," Mrs. Dow said. "If he wants to stick with acting, that's fine. But if he becomes interested in something else, that's all right, too."
Scholastically, Tony is an A and B student and graduated with the June class at Van Nuys Junior High, although he has attended studio school for the past three years. There's only one thing wrong with Tony—he has too much of everything!

Dow had plenty of time to reminisce about the show. It went off the air while he was still a teenager. This piece from the Newspaper Enterprise Association appeared in papers on July 10, 1983.

Tony Dow was a reluctant child star
By Dick Kleiner
HOLLYWOOD (NEA) – He was a child star, but now he's 38 years old. And he can't help but look back at what was and wonder what might have been. His name is Tony Dow, but you probably think of him as Wally Cleaver, the Beaver's big brother. From the time he was 12 until he turned 18, Dow played Wally on "Leave It To Beaver," one of the biggest TV hits of its time. Now that he can put it all in perspective, he realizes that he gained something, but lost something, by becoming a star at such a young age. He gained a career, but perhaps he lost a career, too.
Dow became an actor totally by accident. At 12, he was an excellent swimmer and diver, with aspirations to compete in the ‘72 Olympics. "I used to give diving exhibitions from when I was 5," he says. "I worked out every day at a particular pool, and one of the lifeguards there was an actor. He was going to audition for the part of a father with a young son, and he had the idea that if he brought a kid alone, it would help him get the part."
So he asked Tony to accompany him to the audition. The two looked like they could be father and son, and Tony got the part but the lifeguard didn't. It was for a pilot, which never sold, but then along came "Beaver" and they wanted him.
When he was offered the role of Wally Cleaver, Dow says his mother sat him down at a restaurant and explained just what was involved in accepting the role. "She told me how much work it would be," he says, "and how it would mean I couldn't go to my regular school any more. She told me all the pros and cons. I remember I said, 'It sounds like fun — I'll do it. It's strange that what was probably the most important decision of my life was made so lightly.

"It's a psychological thing" he says. "You see, most people become actors for two reasons—they want to be famous and they want to make a lot of money. With me, and with other child stars, those reasons are no longer valid. I had the fame and I had the money when I was a kid. So I no longer had the incentives that push most people. That's both good and bad."
At the time he started acting, he had no other career goal. But, over the years, he has been interested in art (he paints and sculpts), graphics, architecture and the construction industry. He's done work in all those fields, and likes them, and, conceivably, if he hadn't acted he would have been more active in all or some of those areas. Yet, through the years since "Beaver," he has always acted and he still acts. He guest stars on episodic TV shows and the reunion of the Cleavers, the TV movie "Still the Beaver," was a hit and has sparked talk of another series for the surviving Cleavers.
"I still love acting," Dow says. "I want to continue as an actor, I'd prefer to do something besides the Cleavers-grown-up series. Wally Cleaver is OK, but he is a little bland."
Dow has a 10-year-old son who has done a couple of commercials (his father does a lot of those, too) and one part on an episodic TV show. Just recently, he told his father he thought he should have some pictures taken to be shown around to TV casting people.
"We didn't take any pictures," says the father. "I'm not going to do anything to encourage him in this area, not at the moment." He says when he was part of "Leave It To Beaver," he and Jerry Mathers, who played his younger brother, the Beaver, were never close. They were opposites as far as personality and interests.
"Later," he says, "we got closer and went out and did some shows together. But we were never tight when the show was made."

There is a stereotype that child stars have problems later in life. Dow did. He suffered from clinical depression. But he told the Indianapolis Star in 1996 he thought it was hereditary, and his memories of his time as TV’s most famous older brother were pleasant.

Fans are reliving pleasant memories of “Leave It To Beaver” today, too.