Gerald Patrick Mathers (born June 2, 1948) is a former American actor best known for his role in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963. He played the protagonist Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of the suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont, respectively) and the younger brother of Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow).
Early life and family
Mathers was born in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1948, the son of a high school principal, and grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California. Mathers has one sister and two brothers, including Jimmy Mathers.
Early career
Mathers began his career at the age of 2 when he appeared as a child model for a department store ad. Soon after, he starred in a commercial for PET Milk opposite vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn.
His early movies included This Is My Love (1954), Men of the Fighting Lady (1954), The Seven Little Foys (1955) and Alfred Hitchcock's black comedy The Trouble with Harry (1955), in which he plays Arnie, the son of Shirley MacLaine's character, and finds Harry's body in the nearby forest.
Leave It to Beaver
Mathers states that he got the role of Beaver Cleaver after telling the show's producers he would rather be at his Cub Scout meeting than to do an audition for the part. The producers found his candor appealing and perfect for the role. Mathers played the Beaver for six years, appearing in all 234 episodes of the series. He was the first child actor to have had a deal made on his behalf to get a percentage of the merchandising revenue from a television show. Leave It to Beaver still generates revenue more than six decades after its original production run.
The original sitcom has been shown in over 80 countries in 40 languages. Mathers noted that the Leave It to Beaver phenomenon is worldwide. "I can go anywhere in the world, and people know me," Mathers has said. "In Japan, the show's called The Happy Boy and His Family. So I'll be walking through the airport in Japan, and people will come up and say 'Hi, Happy Boy!'"
When asked in a 2014 television interview whether he had known at the time of the filming of Leave it to Beaver that the show was special, and would be in perpetual syndication, Mathers responded: "No, not at all. I had worked since I was two years old. I did movies. I didn't do any other series, but I had done a lot of movies and things like that so, in fact, every year it was a question whether we would come back for the next year 'cause you had to be picked up. So you would do 39 shows and then we would go to New York and meet all the press, and then we'd go to Chicago to meet the ad people, then we'd come back and take about five to six weeks off, and if we got picked up, then we'd start again. So we did that for six years because that was the length of the contracts at those times. So that's why there are 39 [episodes] for six years, and then it was off the air. Not off the air, but we didn't film any new ones [after that.]"
Mathers remained friends with Barbara Billingsley, who played his TV mother June Cleaver, and he remembered her after her death as "a good friend and an even better mentor. For me she was like the favorite teacher that we all had in school."
Education and military service
As he moved into his adolescence, Mathers retired from acting to concentrate on high school. He attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. During this time, he led the musical band Beaver and the Trappers.
While still in high school, Mathers joined the U.S. military. From 1966 to 1969, he was a member of the 146th Airlift Wing, nicknamed The Hollywood Guard, of the California Air National Guard in Van Nuys, California. In 1967, while wearing his dress uniform, Mathers, along with child actress Angela Cartwright, presented an Emmy Award to Gene Kelly. In December 1969, a rumor began that Mathers was killed in action in the Vietnam War. Although the origin of the rumor is unclear, Mathers never saw action and was never stationed outside the United States. In 1980, Mathers and Dow appeared with Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update segment, making fun of the Vietnam War death rumor.
Mathers graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from University of California, Berkeley in 1973.
Personal life
Mathers has been married three times. He met his first wife, Diana Platt, in college. They married in 1974 and later divorced. Mathers met his second wife, Rhonda Gehring, while touring in the production of So Long, Stanley. They have three children: Noah, Mercedes, and Gretchen. Mathers and Gehring divorced in 1997. Mathers married his third wife, Teresa Modnick, on January 30, 2011.
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Diabetes
Mathers was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1996. On the advice of his doctor, Mathers enrolled in a weight loss program with Jenny Craig in May 1997 and lost over 40 lb, and later became the company's first male spokesperson. He represented a Type 2 diabetes reversal program's publications in a television ad.
- SERVES
- 12
- COOK TIME
- 45 Min
We know! We know! Apple Lasagna sounds strange, doesn't it? Well, we sure will be surprised if this great lasagna recipe doesn't become a favorite snack or dessert with your family.
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 2 (21-ounce) cans apple pie filling
- 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 6 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup quick oats
- Dash of ground nutmeg
- Preheat oven to 350º. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook noodles to desired doneness; drain and set aside.
- Coat a 9- x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Layer 4 noodles on bottom of prepared dish. Spread 1 can of apple pie filling on top, slicing any extra-thick apples. Layer 4 noodles over the apples.
- In a large bowl, mix together the Cheddar cheese, ricotta cheese, egg and granulated sugar; spread them evenly over the noodles and top with the remaining 4 noodles. Spoon remaining can of apple pie filling over noodles.
- In a small bowl, crumble together the flour, cinnamon, margarine, brown sugar and quick oats. Sprinkle over the apple filling.
- Bake 45 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes then slice into serving-sized pieces and serve warm or cold.
***If desired, you can mix together 1 cup (1/2 pint) sour cream and 1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar and serve the lasagna with dollops of this topping for garnish.
1937 – Sally Kellerman, American actress and singer (d.2022)
1938 – Ron Ely, American actor
1941 – Stacy Keach, American actor and producer
1944 – Marvin Hamlisch, American composer and conductor (d. 2012)
1948 – Jerry Mathers, American actor and director
HOW TO OBSERVE
On this day, upon completion of all the necessary day’s work and the needed approval, it is suggested that you can then leave work early to enjoy the rest of the day with fun activities of your choosing.
NATIONAL LEAVE THE OFFICE EARLY DAY HISTORY
