An accomplished athlete, in his youth he held numerous diving and swimming titles, including national age-group records. We had family vacations during the summers and I had my group of friends. My mom would drive me to work. Tony Dow | Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles He was the perfect big brother.. He was later a director, producer and sculptor, but he never shook his association with the sitcom. But that was also at the time when the new Leave It to Beaver came along. Twenty years after Leave It to Beaver went off the air, it returned in the form of a CBS television movie, Still the Beaver (1983). Dow: It was great. A post on his official Facebook page from reps Frank Bilotta and Renee James said that Dow, who had been battling cancer, had died Tuesday morning, but that was deleted. Mathers, and Barbara Billingsley pose together in a promotional portrait for the television series, 'Leave It to Beaver'. But that changed, especially in the 80s. He appeared as a guest star on series like Dr. Can Tony go with me because we kind of look alike? He figured maybe that was the only way [he would be hired]. He was a Junior Olympics diving champion, but didn't have much showbiz . His mother was Muriel Montrose, a Mack Sennett bathing beauty and then a stuntwoman who often doubled for Clara Bow. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I didnt know what was going on. He also played himself in the 2003 comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, which featured cameos of dozens of former young actors, and appeared in the John Landis skit comedy feature The Kentucky Fried Movie.. WhenLeave it to Beaverdebuted on CBS in October 1957, Dow was 12 and Wally was just beginning to take an interest in girls. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. In the series pilot that was shot in early 1957, Paul Sullivan portrayed Wally opposite Jerry Mathers as his younger brother, Theodore Beaver Cleaver, while Barbara Billingsley and Max Showalter (aka Casey Adams) played the parents, June and Ward Cleaver. We spent a little more money on it than most, I believe, but it was just more realistic. I would study my lines while on the way and I had three hours of a school a day. They wanted us to be as much of a family as possible, for Jerry and I to very much be like regular kids. In David Spades comedy Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star, Mr. Dow sang in the front row of a glee club of former child stars.