![]() “Just look at the stuff that came in: No dogs, no cats, no fishing poles, no kids, just a crummy canary.” Then, after Mrs. “Boy, are you going to have creepy neighbors,” he tells Wally in his first scene. He stirred up trouble for the first of many times when he, Wally and Beaver spy the couple moving in next door to the Cleavers on the series’ fifth episode. Cleaver” - but was mean to Wally’s younger brother, Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver (Jerry Mathers). In 1980, a suspected car thief shot him three times, leaving him severely wounded and effectively ending his days on the job.Īs the best friend of Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow), Eddie was well-mannered and the epitome of polite when interacting with the adults of the show, especially Barbara Billingsley’s character - “My, you look lovely today, Mrs. His brother Dayton later became a special effects supervisor for the TV show "Babylon 5." Kenneth Charles Osmond died at age 76 of cardiac arrest on May 18, 2020.In between the two programs, Osmond spent 18 years with the Los Angeles Police Department. Married to wife Sandy since 1970, he kept fairly prosperous handling rental properties in the Los Angeles area. Ken was last seen in an isolated featured part in the family comedy film CHARACTERz (2016). Ken still makes personal appearances occasionally at film festivals, collectors' shows and nostalgia conventions. A full-length film version of Leave It to Beaver (1997) had Osmond turning back once again to the show, this time as the father of his infamous role. Osmond played his impish sons on the series, Eddie Jr. Ken's real-life offspring Christian Osmond and Eric E. The series revolved around the boys all married now, having kids and faced with grown-up problems. In the 1980s, Ken came back to TV with a reunion mini-movie and then a cable-revived version of "Leave It to Beaver" entitled The New Leave It to Beaver (1983), which featured Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow, Frank Bank and Jerry Mathers from the original 1950s cast. A long-time member of its vice squad, he was wounded three times during the line of duty, eventually retired and earned a medical disability pension from the police force. He grew a mustache to help secure his anonymity. He subsequently made a very un-Eddie-like career choice by joining the Los Angeles Police Department. After a hitch in the Army, he grabbed a few TV remnants that came his way on such lightweight comedy shows as "The Munsters" and "Petticoat Junction." Following a minor role in the youth-oriented flick C'mon, Let's Live a Little (1967) starring pop singers Bobby Vee and Jackie DeShannon, Osmond pretty much called it quits. In retrospect, a spin-off show starring the Eddie Haskell character could have been something to consider however, Osmond as a 20-year-old juvenile delinquent (his age when the show ended) might have been hard to swallow. A certifiable radar for trouble, he was the resident scene-stealer for six seasons until the show's demise in 1963, when things went downhill quickly. Cleaver!") while showing his true colors bullying poor Beaver (nicknaming him "squirt") or goading Wally on to break some family rule or curfew. As the two-faced buddy of teenager Wally Cleaver, Eddie was forever brown-nosing the Cleaver parents ("You look lovely today, Mrs. ![]() With his tight, curly blond locks, ugly sneer and intimidating stance, he became an instant sensation on the show, delightfully smudging up the squeaky-clean Cleaver name on occasion with his nasty antics. He went on to appear in the popular shows of the day including "Circus Boy," "Annie Oakley" and "Lassie." Both public and studio schooled, Ken nabbed the key role of Eddie Haskell at age 14. Other minor tyke film roles came for Osmond with So Big (1953), Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) and Everything But the Truth (1956). Taking up athletic skills such as fencing and martial arts as well as diction classes, Ken and his brother Dayton Osmond made their film debuts as child extras in the Mayflower pilgrim tale Plymouth Adventure (1952) starring Spencer Tracy. ![]() He started appearing on film and TV prior to his sitcom success thanks to a typically insistent stage mother. Ken was born on Jin Glendale, California, to Pearl (Hand) and Thurman Osmond, a studio carpenter and propmaker, who were both originally from the American South. It did not careen out of control or disintegrate into alcohol and drugs. Unlike so many other tragic child stars who did not survive the transition into adulthood, Osmond's life remained quite balanced. So inextricably typed was he that he gave up on any semblance of a career within a short time after the series' cancellation. Forever tagged as the unctuous, trouble-making truant Eddie Haskell on the quintessential 50s family show Leave It to Beaver (1957), actor Ken Osmond did not manage much of a career after the stereotype. ![]()
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