Tony Dow is best remembered for playing Wally Cleaver, the clean-cut and much wiser older brother of Beaver on the classic family sitcom Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963). Since the show's demise, he has appeared sporadically in a couple feature films and in a few television movies. He reprised the role of Wally in the 1980s in the made-for-TV reunion film Still the Beaver (1983) and in the series it spawned. In 1965, Dow starred in the short-lived series Never Too Young. After a final feature-film appearance as a judge in the good-natured, nostalgic spoof of the Beach Party movies Back to the Beach (1987), Dow disappeared for a few years and then re-emerged as a director of television episodes for such series as Babylon 5 (1993) and as a producer of films such as It Came From Outer Space II (1996).
Tony Dow
Active - 1972 - 2003 |
Born - Apr 13, 1945 in Hollywood, California, United States |
Died - Jul 27, 2022 |
Genres - Comedy, Science Fiction, Drama
Share on
Biography by AllMovie
Movie Highlights
Factsheet
- Is the son of Hollywood stuntwoman Muriel Dow, who was actress Clara Bow's double.
- Was a decorated swimmer and diver as a youth.
- Has worked as a director, builder, producer and sculptor.
- As a sculptor, has shown at numerous galleries and festivals; his "Unarmed Warrior" sculpture appeared at an exhibition at the Louvre in 2008.
- Remained close to his Leave It to Beaver cast mates after the show went off the air: Barbara Billingsley, his TV mom, had one of his sculptures displayed at her home.
- Was diagnosed with clinical depression; has appeared in self-help videos on the subject.