During its production, Dow had no clue that he was a part of something that would someday be looked back on as an iconic representation of an era. Other than the three hours of the day that he spent doing his schooling, the rest of the time was spent behind the camera.ĭow continued to portray Wally Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver for six years. He used to study his lines while he was on the way to the studio. While Dow certainly didn’t realize it at the time, he was a part of something that would live on as a testament of the period that it came out of for audiences to enjoy for many decades to come.ĭuring his time as Wally, Dow’s mom would drive him to work every day after breakfast. In a way, Leave It To Beaver is a bit of a time capsule. Not only did the music change, but so did the people and their desires in what they were seeking out of life. The world changed dramatically shortly after it wrapped up production. In a way, it represented the last wave of more innocent times in America. Leave It To Beaver was on the air before the assassination of JFK, the arrival of the Beatles, and the escalation of the American involvement in Vietnam. On Leave It To Beaver, Dow rose to fame through the 234 episodes that he appeared in. It was his mother’s involvement with show business that initially lured him in, but once he discovered that he had a knack for performing in front of the camera, he was hooked. In fact, he never really set his sights on acting.
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He scored the iconic role on the sitcom without having had previous acting experience. Dow was a trained diver who competed in the AAU Junior Olympic Games before changing course and becoming a child actor.