Jerry Mathers

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Vocation

Family

American actor, most noted as a child star in the legendary TV series "Leave it to Beaver." His later work covered the genres of comedy, drama, crime, musicals and thrillers. His brother Jimmy was also an actor and Jerry began modeling at the age of two. He made a first TV appearance on Ed Wynn's variety show in 1950. In 1956, Mathers was first cast as all-American kid Theodore "Beaver" Clever in "It's a Small World," an unsold pilot film that did not come into airplay until a year later when it made a debut as a weekly sitcom with him as the star. He starred in 234 episodes of Beaver from 1957 through 1963, literally growing up before the eyes of the nation. As a teenager, Mathers quit show business for nearly a decade, going to college and selling real estate. In 1983, he starred in the "retro" made-for-TV film "Still the Beaver," which evolved into a moderately successful weekly cable series, "The New Leave It to Beaver," 1985-’89. He was playing himself: a middle-aged divorced father, wondering just what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. In the ‘90s, Mathers did a number of personal appearances, TV guest shots, and punch line bits on Jay Leno's Tonight Show. He published an autobiography written with Herb Fagen, "And Jerry Mathers As "the Beaver" in July 1998. He speaks of his TV and real family, his struggle with dyslexia and his appreciation of living life as America's favorite kid. Link to Wikipedia biography