Jerry Mathers Leave It to Beaver Where Are They Now?
Jerry Mathers - 'Leave It to Beaver' - Where Are They Now? TV for Grownups
ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images Jerry Mathers. His career began quite accidentally in Desmond's department store in Los Angeles, where Mathers, then 2, went shopping with his mother. The store's public relations director approached them and said that another 2-year-old catalog model had just outgrown his clothes. Would Mathers' mother allow him to take his place and maybe appear in an upcoming fashion show? "My mom was still a little hesitant, but when the PR person said we'd pay him and he could keep all the clothes he wore, my mom said I could probably do it." Mathers laughed as he recalled the moment in a telephone interview with the AARP Bulletin.
He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, hoping to go on to law school with the money he'd made from the show. Instead he was persuaded by a friend to become a banker, and then went into real estate and continued working as an actor. He also did a short stint, three years, as a weekend disc jockey. Royalties for Leave It to Beaver ran out long ago, after each episode had been repeated six times, he said. But he still gets minimal royalties from later spin-offs from the show. "Just yesterday, I got a check — I forget what show it was — something in the '90s. It was 13 cents. But I have no regrets. I've done very well and I'm in fairly good shape," he said. There have been some health bumps along the way. After Leave It to Beaver went off the air, Mathers discovered he had psoriasis and has done some events for the National Psoriasis Foundation. When he started a catering business in the late 1980s, he gained a significant amount of weight. His doctor, a personal friend, noticed the weight gain and repeatedly urged him get a physical. He resisted, saying he felt fine. "Finally, she got me with the magic words: For Christmas I'm going to give you a free physical," he laughed. A few days later he learned his blood sugar was over 700 and he had full-blown "My doctor asked me if I'd like to see my kids graduate from high school. She said, 'You'll be dead in a few years unless you do something about it right now.' " He lost 60 pounds and now walks or runs an hour a day on a trail near his home in Southern California. He recently appeared in the American Academy of Neurology Foundation's patient education video and handbook, Leave It to Beaver has never been off the air, Mathers said, and plays in 46 languages around the world. Nearly 20 years after the show ended, a made-for television movie, Still the Beaver, aired on CBS. That was followed by the series Still the Beaver on the Disney Channel, and later The New Leave It to Beaver show on TBS. The shows featured most of the original cast, including Mathers, who played a divorced, out-of-work dad. Next page:
Jerry Mathers
' Leave It to Beaver' premiered 54 years ago
Jerry Mathers was a 9-year-old show business veteran when Leave It to Beaver premiered 54 years ago this week, with Mathers playing everyone's favorite little brother, the irrepressible Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver.ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images Jerry Mathers. His career began quite accidentally in Desmond's department store in Los Angeles, where Mathers, then 2, went shopping with his mother. The store's public relations director approached them and said that another 2-year-old catalog model had just outgrown his clothes. Would Mathers' mother allow him to take his place and maybe appear in an upcoming fashion show? "My mom was still a little hesitant, but when the PR person said we'd pay him and he could keep all the clothes he wore, my mom said I could probably do it." Mathers laughed as he recalled the moment in a telephone interview with the AARP Bulletin.
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He soon acted in his first commercial, for PET Milk, dressed in cowboy boots, six-guns, a 10-gallon hat and a diaper. More television work followed, as well as roles in Alfred Hitchcock and Bob Hope movies. By the time he auditioned for Leave It to Beaver, he had just joined the Cub Scouts and was more intent on not missing a meeting than impressing the show's producers. "There were eight to 12 kids. I happened to be the last one called in. I was kind of antsy," Mathers, now 63, said. "The producers said, 'What's the matter, Jerry?' I said I really had to go because I had a Cub Scout meeting." The producers called Mathers' mother that night and told her he had the job, explaining that they would rather have a child who wanted to be at a Cub Scout meeting than one who wanted to be an actor. After the beloved sitcom about the Cleaver family of the fictitious community of Mayfield ended after 234 episodes, Mathers had been working for six years, with just a few weeks off every year. He was by then a teenager who wanted to take a break from acting. He attended a private boys' prep school and threw himself enthusiastically into sports, something his schedule had never allowed before. Next page:He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, hoping to go on to law school with the money he'd made from the show. Instead he was persuaded by a friend to become a banker, and then went into real estate and continued working as an actor. He also did a short stint, three years, as a weekend disc jockey. Royalties for Leave It to Beaver ran out long ago, after each episode had been repeated six times, he said. But he still gets minimal royalties from later spin-offs from the show. "Just yesterday, I got a check — I forget what show it was — something in the '90s. It was 13 cents. But I have no regrets. I've done very well and I'm in fairly good shape," he said. There have been some health bumps along the way. After Leave It to Beaver went off the air, Mathers discovered he had psoriasis and has done some events for the National Psoriasis Foundation. When he started a catering business in the late 1980s, he gained a significant amount of weight. His doctor, a personal friend, noticed the weight gain and repeatedly urged him get a physical. He resisted, saying he felt fine. "Finally, she got me with the magic words: For Christmas I'm going to give you a free physical," he laughed. A few days later he learned his blood sugar was over 700 and he had full-blown "My doctor asked me if I'd like to see my kids graduate from high school. She said, 'You'll be dead in a few years unless you do something about it right now.' " He lost 60 pounds and now walks or runs an hour a day on a trail near his home in Southern California. He recently appeared in the American Academy of Neurology Foundation's patient education video and handbook, Leave It to Beaver has never been off the air, Mathers said, and plays in 46 languages around the world. Nearly 20 years after the show ended, a made-for television movie, Still the Beaver, aired on CBS. That was followed by the series Still the Beaver on the Disney Channel, and later The New Leave It to Beaver show on TBS. The shows featured most of the original cast, including Mathers, who played a divorced, out-of-work dad. Next page: