At
the tender age of nine, Jerry Mathers had already acted in six
films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry.
His debut had been a few years earlier at age two when he appeared
on The Ed Wynn Show. Despite his impressive resume, the
show's producers claimed that Mathers won the role of Beaver
Cleaver because he asked to leave his audition to go to a Cub
Scouts meeting.
Being so well known for being Beaver didn't help Mathers
land many acting roles in the years following, though he managed
to keep himself busy finishing high school, going to college
and playing with his band, Beaver and the Trappers. While
rumors abounded that Mathers had met an untimely demise in
Vietnam (he had been a member of the National Guard), Mathers
made many personal appearances around the country in the 70's.
Mathers found himself back in the limelight in the early
80's as a huge nostalgic craze for Leave It to Beaver
erupted, resulting in the TV movie Still the Beaver
and a syndicated series, The New Leave It to Beaver.
Recently, Mathers became a celebrity spokesman for Jenny Craig,
and released an autobiography in 1998. He's currently working
with his TV brother Tony Dow and Beaver castmate Ken
Osmond on a Beaver-like series they hope to bring to television
soon.
