Tony Dow Dead at 77- Wally Cleaver (SEE Correction!)

[+ Lucky]

My favorite actor of my youth, Tony Dow, has died.

He had recently disclosed that he had cancer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/arts/television/tony-dow-dead.html

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Lucky

[+ Lucky]

Every episode of Leave It To Beaver that I watched as a boy should have told me that I was gay! I really liked Wally Cleaver and watched every show. But back then it wasn't to be...gays just didn't yet exist in my universe. I feel with Dow's death that part of my youth is gone, as if it wasn't already.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Lucky

[wsc]

Another High School era guy I salivated over.

BTW ... didn't appreciate it at the time, but later thought funniest line on the series was when June told husband Ward, "You were pretty hard on the Beaver last night."

[KrisParr]

The dude was certainly a focus of many young men’s tissue-laden fantasies. 

[Whitman]

If it weren't for reruns, I would have missed Leave It to Beaver, and the self-realization that Tony helped to provide. Rest in peace, Handsome. 

[+ Lucky]

CORRECTION! Reports are that Tony Dow is not, in fact, dead:

From wire services:

Actor, director and artist Tony Dow, who is well known for playing Wally Cleaver on the 1950s sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” is near death but remains alive and breathing, his wife Lauren Dow told CBS on Tuesday.

The actor’s managers erroneously reported his death Tuesday morning on Facebook. The post was later removed, and Lauren Dow confirmed that her husband remains in hospice care.

Dow’s son Christopher told Fox News Digital that the actor is under hospice care and “in his last hours.”

Dow, 77, has been suffering from cancer.

Actors Tony Dow , left, who played Wally Cleaver and Jerry Mathers, who played Beaver Cleaver in “Leave It to Beaver,” attend A Mother’s Day Salute to TV Moms at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on May 6, 2008, in North Hollywood. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

 

CORRECTION: This article originally reported that Tony Dow had died on Tuesday. It was based on wire reports of a Facebook post from Dow’s managers that was later removed after Dow’s wife told CBS that the actor is ill but remains alive.

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Lucky
premature

[+ nycman]

1 hour ago, Lucky said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/arts/television/tony-dow-dead.html

The New York Times was using a "Facebook post" as a source?

Are you fucking kidding me? The "old grey lady", is in fact dead. 

[Luv2play]

2 hours ago, Lucky said:

Every episode of Leave It To Beaver that I watched as a boy should have told me that I was gay! I really liked Wally Cleaver and watched every show. But back then it wasn't to be...gays just didn't yet exist in my universe. I feel with Dow's death that part of my youth is gone, as if it wasn't already.

I felt the same way when Ricky Nelson died in 1985. Interestingly, the two stars look somewhat similar, especially the hair. I even remember when I was where I learned that Ricky had died in a plane crash. It was a headline in a newspaper in the lobby of a hotel in Acapulco, where I was on vacation with my bf.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Luv2play

[Luv2play]

57 minutes ago, nycman said:

The New York Times was using a "Facebook post" as a source?

Are you fucking kidding me? The "old grey lady", is in fact dead. 

The Times has now withdrawn the obituary.

[pubic_assistance]

I remember when Abe Vigoda used to die in the news but wasnt actually dead for years

[+ Lucky]

Can't be too hard on the NY Times here. The story was all over the media, so they were not alone in being misled. I think it adds some sadness to the Tony Dow story that his last days become known for the mistake rather than the man. But, we'll see.

[+ nycman]

10 hours ago, Lucky said:

Can't be too hard on the NY Times here.

Yeah, you can’t expect them to actually check their sources, right?

Oh wait….I forgot…..they’re supposed to be a newspaper….yes….yes, you can.

16 hours ago, Luv2play said:

The Times has now withdrawn the obituary.

No shit. 

“Integrity, my friend, is the shield to greed and vanity.” -Camino Del Rio

[Luv2play]

It was obviously a mistake for the Times not to have checked the reports of Dow's death on social media. I would have thought that the department that is responsible for running obituaries has procedures in place to verify actual deaths before publishing an obit. 

It is a different matter for the newspaper to report a death as a news item. That can be easily corrected and such corrections appear almost daily in any major newspaper that claims to be a reliable source of news. I can't even recall the last time an obituary was recalled. Definitely embarrassing.

[+ ButchAtl]

Reminds me of how Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is often quoted (some say inaccurately) about the reports of his death being premature. 

[DustyX]

A Facebook post by the actors’ manager is the modern equivalent of sending out a press release. Blame the managers not the Times. 

[+ WilliamM]

Tony Dow was hospitalized with pneumonia in 2021, according to  his Facebook page.

[wsc]

17 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

I remember when Abe Vigoda used to die in the news but wasnt actually dead for years

Well, yes, but that's because he looked dead years before he was.

[+ WilliamM]

The record holder was Spain's dictator, Francisco Franco on SNL 

[+ Charlie]

When Owen Wister, the famous American novelist of the late 19th/early 20th century, was on a trip out West, somehow a report started that he had died. He was on a camping trip and didn't find out about it for some time, but all the newspapers in the East picked up the false report and published obituaries. His wife even got on a train to head west to recover his body. It took days for the mistake to be discovered and corrected, and he said he sometimes shocked people long afterwards, who exclaimed, "But I thought you were dead!" He often quoted his friend Mark Twain's famous comment.

Most newspapers have prepared obituaries in their files for noted persons of a certain age, and someone at the NYT probably jumped the gun to get theirs out first.

[+ WilliamM]

41 minutes ago, Charlie said:

When Owen Wister, the famous American novelist of the late 19th/early 20th century, was on a trip out W

Most newspapers have prepared obituaries in their files for noted persons of a certain age, and someone at the NYT probably jumped the gun to get theirs out first.

The New York Times always checks with a family member or a very close friend. This was a major exception.

[BabyBoomer]

Tony died this morning 07/27/22 surrounded by family.

RIP Wally.

~Boomer~

[+ WilliamM]

His son, Christopher, confirmed his dad had died

[Luv2play]

Sort of a messy end, isn't it.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Luv2play

[+ Lucky]

28 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

Sort of a messy end, isn't it.

Tony Dow's demise was met with an outpouring of love across the country. Not messy at all.

RIP Tony Dow.

[Luv2play]

I was referring to the public relations aspect of the announcement of his death. Not his actual death nor the public reaction to his demise.