Actor Tony Dow, best known for his role as Wally Cleaver in the 1950s American TV hit sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” died Tuesday at age 77, his friends and management team said.
Dow, whose career in television as an actor, director, and producer spanned seven decades, died on Tuesday morning, according to a statement posted to Facebook. A cause of death was not disclosed, though he and his wife, Lauren, said in May that he was suffering from a recurrence of cancer.
In “Leave It to Beaver,” Dow played the teenage older brother of the title character, Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver. Dow’s role in the show—which ran from 1957 to 1963 and depicted an idealized American family living a carefree life in a postwar suburb—made him a cultural icon….