Tony Dow, ‘Leave It to Beaver’ star, has died

“While this is a quite sad day, I have comfort and peace that he is in a improved area. He was the greatest Father everyone could check with for. He was my coach, my mentor, my voice of rationale, my best pal, my best gentleman in my wedding, and my hero,” Christopher Dow explained, in accordance to a assertion that Bilotta shared on Tony Dow’s official Fb webpage.

News of the actor’s passing comes a single working day following a untimely announcement of his dying. Dow uncovered in May perhaps he experienced been diagnosed with most cancers and was receiving hospice care this 7 days, according to his son.

“There went my lifestyle,” he reported.

Wally Cleaver, the straight-arrow teenage son, star athlete and Boy Scout, grew to become inextricably tied to Dow, who claimed he struggled to stand on his very own.

“It is really sad to be famous at 12 several years previous or some thing, and then you grow up and grow to be a genuine individual, and nothing’s transpired for you,” he informed CBS.

Dow, who reported he seasoned undiagnosed melancholy from age 20 to age 40, spoke out for many years about his mental overall health worries, long just before it was popular for celebrities to disclose that info publicly. In 1993, he was an honorary speaker at a conference for the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association.

Dow instructed CBS that the moment he approved his diagnosis and began remedy, he found hope. He channeled that hope into art, way too, sculpting ornate pieces at his household studio.

“I believe men and women must choose the leap of religion that they can come to feel superior,” he explained.

Dow continued to do the job in Hollywood, getting pieces in Television collection and even reprising his position in “The New Depart It to Beaver” in the 1980s. He also directed episodes of sequence like “Harry and the Hendersons,” “Coach” and “Star Trek: Deep Area Nine.”