Why Did Hugh Beaumont's Career Go Straight Down the Shitter?

Larry Mathers?! Oh dear!

At least he was spared the degrading role poor Carl Betz played in ‘The Meal’(1975).

Jerry headed off to the National Guard and then to Berkeley. He didn’t care.

He still did guest appearances on other shows. I saw him once in an episode of “Mannix.”

why do DLers never talk about the fact that Hugh was GAY?

He was cancelled for being too rough on the beaver.

I'd quit the business if I'd had to play someone named Ward.

He couldn’t speak jive.

Because he died.

He did look ill guesting on shows after Beaver. It was still nice to see him now and then.

r5 - really?

He played Steve's father on Petticoat Junction during his wedding to Bettie Jo.

Hugh playing Ward Cleaver for the last time after his stroke.

[quote]A devout Methodist, he originally studied for the clergy but eventually switched to acting, remaining busy as a lay minister, however, throughout his acting career.

[quote]Was a staunch conservative Republican and publically supported the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

I'm going to go with not gay although Tony Dow could have turned anyone

He was an alcoholic.

[quote]After Leave It to Beaver ended production in 1963, Beaumont appeared in many community theater productions and played a few guest roles on television series such as Marcus Welby, M.D., Mannix, Petticoat Junction, The Virginian, and Wagon Train. In February 1966, he made another appearance on Lassie, 11 years after his first.[8]

[quote]He also continued to have success as a writer, selling several television screenplays and radio scripts as well as short stories to various magazines.[12] He gradually left the entertainment business, launching a second career as a Christmas-tree farmer in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. After suffering a debilitating stroke in 1970, Beaumont officially retired from acting in 1972. In 1980, he did appear in a Beaver reunion with the rest of the cast that was conducted by a local Los Angeles TV station.

Beefcake Hugh in Danger Zone.

Objective, Burma!

The Racket Man

Multiple images of shirtless and surprisingly sexy Hugh Beaumont. Where else on the internet would you find that but DL?

A magical place called Google search results.

In his later years he often mumbled that he never knew Ken Osmond had so many talented siblings.

In the first season, Ward often wore a sweatshirt and jeans. He also yelled at the boys a lot. The character was rebooted in season two with suits and a calmer temperament.

I called him HUGE Beaumont when we'd have our private rehearsals.

He liked that.

Huge pussyhound. Big Eisenhower supporter.

He retured to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, home town of Frances Gumm/Judy Garland. Known as being in the Goiter Belt of the US--a lof of iron in the soil.

*retired

R20 And I looked for them.

I never liked his nose.

Well sure anyone can find them r28. But the point is who would think to search for them and curate them for us here (There’s Brian’s Drive-In Theater, which has been around forever and is fun to look around in). I thought I was paying a compliment and my appreciation. I didn’t mean to offend anybody.

R17 - who knew?

thank hugh.

Was Hugh's family on his father's side French?

His entire name sounds very French: Eugene Hugh Beaumont.

Beau mont en effet!

For R20: many DLers are insufferable bitches. You did nothing wrong. Just be yourself here.

He was no Carl Betz.

His nickname was Huge Beaumont

How many gay boys of the 50s and 60s must've whacked off to Tony Dow? He was a snack.

Tony Dow was no Don Grady.

He worked steadily from 1940 to 1971 he was forty-eight years old when he started on the series Leave It to Beaver. He has 148 credits on IMDB the majority of which predate Leave It to Beaver

He left June for God.

R7 is a dope.

Poor Jerry Mathers. Cute as a bicycle as a kid, but turned into a water headed ghoul as an adult.

He was a terrible actor. More wooden than a backyard tool shed. Nobody from that show was ever going to win any Oscars.

R37 He was no Rick Nelson.

I thought that was Larry Mathers.

Chunky butt Rusty Stevens (Larry Mondello) went missing from the show from one season to the next. He was fired because of his stagebitch of a mother who was causing too many problems. His family then moved across country to Philly. I always thought it was hilarious that the woman who played his mother on the show (Madge Blake) looked old enough to be his grandmother, and that's because she was. She was almost 60 when the show started. No wonder Larry was born retarded.

Stanley Fafara (Whitey Whitney) became friends with the members of Paul Revere & The Raiders and eventually moved in with them and became a drunkard and a druggy (eventually a heroin addict.} After developing Hepatitis C he finally got clean, but lived the last years of his life in a sober living facility subsisting on a $475/mo social security check. Poor guy died from complications from hernia surgery in his mid 50s.

[quote] Cute as a bicycle as a kid, but turned into a water headed ghoul as an adult.

As is so often the case.

[quote] Nobody from that show was ever going to win any Oscars.

Back then TV viewers had low expectations and most shows met those expectations easily. Actual acting talent wasn't concentrated on back then. Nor was writing talent. I've been watching Gunsmoke on MeTV daily. They've just rotated back to the beginning of the series, and dear Lord in Heaven was the acting bad back in the beginning of the series. The scripts were like something written by high schoolers and James Arness & Amanda Blake especially were particularly bad. But I guess when you're given a poor written script there's not much you can do with it. It took that show several years before the writers and actors got their acts together.

[quote] He was no Rick Nelson.

Few were. Rick showed some very nice VPL back in the day.

Beaumont never had much of a career pre-Beaver. He was no Olivier, so he would have been lucky if he’d gotten some other second fiddle role on a sitcom.

A My Three Sons publicity shot of Don Grady featured some VPL.

They also put him in one episode where he was in ballet tights during most of the show.

Don Grady was insanely sexy but My 3 Sons rarely capitalized on it. He would never have appeared on the series as he does in that photo at r50. Sadly.

And to my knowledge he never made any films or other TV shows after the series ended. I'm guessing he was a show biz kid who'd had enough by the time he grew up.

Well, I just checked on IMDb and I was wrong. Don Grady had numerous guest starring credits on TV and a few minor B films after My 3 Sons wrapped. But again, to my knowledge, none of them particularly took advantage of his sex appeal.

He was a conscientious objector in WWI and served as a medic. He was in a lot of old movies. He was in The Blue Dahlia as one of Alan Ladd's Army buddies (the other was William Bendix)...written by Raymond Chandler (co-starring Veronica Lake). He had that radio-announcwer sort of voice. Apparently was depressed through some of the Beaver series due to a family death.

Don Grady was a shrimp.

It never ceases to amaze me what some DL'ers consider VPL!

Yeah I didn't see anything either.

Stephen Talbot who played Beaver's pal Gilbert Bates in LITB, did probably better after the show went off the air than any of them. He eventually became a major player in documentary world, having produced and/or directed over 40. He worked extensively with PBS and specifically with 'Frontline' for 16 years.

His father was (only the eldergays will remember this guy) famed stage/screen/TV actor Lyle Talbot.

[Quote] I never liked his nose.

Not a fan of YOU either!

Never liked Gilbert. He wasn’t as funny as Larry Mondello and he sounded adenoidal.

Lyle Talbot, who would mostly be remembered (if at all) by Baby Boomers and Eldergays as Ozzie Nelson's annoying neighbor was a very hunky leading man in the early days of pre-Code Hollywood. I nearly fell over myself seeing him in a Loretta Young weepie of the period on TCM.

Beyond Leave It to Beaver: The Story of Stephen Talbot

Lyle Talbot was in “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and lots of other schlock. He had quite a career as a “working actor”.

I never liked Gilbert either. It probably wasn't intentional but it was interesting how Beaver's friend group changed as he grew up. That's a normal thing when you're a kid. Larry Mondello was my favorite but he wouldn't have been nearly as cute and funny as he hit adolescence. Toward the end of the series a young Tim Matheson appeared a few times as one of Beaver's friends

I think Gilbert took over as the troublemaker from Larry Mondello. They both were always trying to get Beaver to do something he shouldn't be doing so he'd get the blame.

[italic]I'll[/italic]never make up stories about him biting my lip and trying to raw dog me during our rehearsals. I'm not a crazy dishonest cunt, after all.

The best episode was the one where Wally and Eddie jerked each other off.

Lyle Talbot fathered an exceptional brood. Stephen's brother, David, founded Slate magazine, and his sister Margaret, is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

r38 had no idea he was in his late 40s during leave it to beaver.

Lyle Talbot and Mary jane Croft.

At around 1:00. Don DeFore was also on this special.

Didn’t know Tim Matheson was on LITB. He’s had a loooong career. Has there ever been a thread on him? I bet he has some stories to tell. Probably seen a lot.

Anyway, back to Hugh…

Gidget's daddy Don Porter was much hotter.

R67: David Talbot founded Salon. Michael Kinsley founded Slate where he would take childish potshots at Salon.

Hugh was the hot daddy of my childhood dreams. So kind, always had time to talk, smoking a pipe in the den.