Celebrating the life of Tony Dow

What the fuck happened to Paul Peterson - he’s aged to 110 years old.

Billy Mumy looks the best.

Who is who in that pack of oldsters?

Where's Jerry Mathers?!

They may be old but, unlike R2, are not stupid.

Could someone include their characters and shows in the left to right description? TIA!

They are all old men. they have not aged in order to annoy anyone but because time pas passed. You are older too then you were than when you first saw them on TV! That is not their fault

Their ages in 2022:

Barry Livingston, Ernie Douglas on "My Three Sons": 68

Billy Gray, Bud Anderson on "Father Knows Best": 84

Jon Provost, Timmie on "Lassie": 72

Stanley Livingston, Chip Douglas on "My three Sons": 71

Paul Petersen, Jeff stone on "The Donna Reed Show": 77

Billy Mumy, Will Robinson on "Lost in Space": 68 (he does look great)

r6 - thanks for this. Awesome. I loved Will Robinson and Dr. Smith on Lost In Space.

Barry Livingston, Ernie Douglas on "My Three Sons": 68

Billy Gray, Bud Anderson on "Father Knows Best": 84

Jon Provost, Timmie on "Lassie": 72

Stanley Livingston, Chip Douglas on "My three Sons": 71 (Barry's real life and TV brother)

Paul Petersen, Jeff stone on "The Donna Reed Show": 77 😍

Thank you!

Love it OP, thanks for posting

Billy Mumy, Will Robinson on "Lost in Space": 68... Growing up I so wanted to be Billy's BFF, he had a robot AND a spaceship

Although I'm a bit younger(67) I grew up watching all these guys on TV and NOT reruns. They're like my grammar school buddies

Billy also had a Gay "friend"... Dr. Smith

With that hat and mustache and beard covering his face it's hard to tell how Bill Mumy really looks.

And Paul Peterson hands down was the best looking of all of them.

These guys were great, but my heart and my young gayling dick belonged to Chip and Ernie's older "brother" Don Grady 😍

... But sometimes I cheated with Tony Dow 😛

Which one is Tony Dow in the picture? Is he the one in blue? I never knew he was so short.

^ He's the dead guy in the casket 🙄😂

Uh, that beautiful young man at R20 is dead.

^ Yeah, that was the reason for the Celebration of the life of Tony Dow

OMG, I just realized that it's Paul Peterson in the wheelchair. I guess at 77, I shouldn't be surprised but, oh dear, I hope he's doing ok. At least he has a big smile on his face, God bless him.

Billy Gray is like the cat with 9 lives. Amazing he looks as good as he does in mid 80s. What a talent he was. And certainly someone who should have had a bigger and better adult career. But perhaps he wanted out of acting and Hollywood.

R3 is right on, Jerry Mathers belonged there.

^ Maybe Tony was a little hard on the Beaver and he didn't want to go 😉

Billy Gray was a bit of a burnout for awhile. He looks good for his age. Billy Mumy seems to have had more of a normal life than the others.

And they were all sexually abused as kids, right? Isn't this why Paul Peterson started his organisation to protect child actors?

Dee-lightful!

^ I remember reading the boys were warned to stay away from funny "Uncle Bub" 😬

Tony Dow passed away on July 27, 2022 (aged 77)

R29 Peterson started his organization to protect minor actors from financial exploitation.

Jay North, 71, star of Dennis The Menace should be included in the group.

Tim Considine (the original oldest brother on "My Three Sons") also died earlier this year. Was there this kind of turnout for him?

And Jerry Mathers, 74, as The Beaver...

R34 looks up some of the stories about Jay and Sal Mineo. Good stuff.

Barry Livingston still shows up from time-to-time on TV series. I can't remember the last time I saw any of the others.

Billy Gray was great in some pre-Father Knows Best movies.

Where was that hydrocephalic Jerry Mathers? Did his head finally explode?

My Three Sons' Tim Considine died on March 3, 2022 at age 81.

Paul Petersen has COPD/Emphysema.

Barry works quite regularly. Check out his IMDB page.

This was good casting.

So...where's the Beaver?

I can't even imagine the smell of decay, urine, and feces that surrounded them. I hope I never get old.

BIlly Gray invented a candle holder to put inside jack o lanterns in the 1960s and made a fortune. Back in the 60s & 70s the only way to light a jack o lantern was with a candle. And they didn’t make tea candles back then. You had to take a regular candle and sort of whittle it down. Everyone had a supply of candles in case the electricity went out.

He also collects motorcycles. In 1957 he was renting a basement apartment in Topanga Canyon. The owner decided to move and told Gray. “You should buy the house.” So he did. Paid cash. I bet his taxes are real low, too.

R46-He was married twice. Both marriages , especially the second was short. He's never had kids.

Are they all uncut?

That is kind of heartbreaking.

I guess Mason Reese was busy that day?

What about Tommy Rettig, Lassie's friend pre-Jon Provost? Is he still with us? Does anyone remember him (you'd probably have to be at least 70)

I remember Tommy Rettig. I couldn’t understand why Lassie didn’t care she got a new owner. That sucked.

He died in 1996 r51.

Billy Gray was married to Donna Wilkes aka Angel straight A high school student by day Hollywood hooked at night.

When I was a kid, Billy Gray used to race motorcycles on the speedway racing circuit. My parents were race fans, so we went all the time. We used to visit Billy and a few others in the pit, and were on a first-name basis with everyone. He didn't care to talk much about television, but he'd talk to anyone for hours about motorcycles!

What's the dirt on Sal and Dennis?

[quote] I guess Mason Reese was busy that day?

I don't think Mason Reese was ever a sitcom regular like these guys were. He was famous for commercials and appearing on Mike Douglas's show.

R56, And being homely.

Also Mason is two decades younger than these guys.

You won't because you'll die in a grease fire R45.

R43, damn! Carl Betz was a handsome man.

^ Yep, he was a hot TV daddy 😛

So was Hugh Beaumont, "dad" to Wally and the Beaver...

Hugh Beaumont was an ordained minister.

I saw an interview with Tony Down & Jerry Mathers many years ago. Apparently Hugh Beaumont was as nice in real life as he was on the show. The boys adored him and said he was just like a father to them.

Paul Peterson said the same about Carl Betz.

Rusty Hamer was mum on Danny Thomas.

^ Danny kept trying to get me to sit on his glass coffee table... Kind of creeped me out 😬

No love for Larry “Richie Petrie” Matthews?

^ Nope, are you new here?

@r67, We force all the newbies to watch Larry's famous rendition of The Little Drummer Boy... Enjoy 😂

[quote]Billy also had a Gay "friend"... Dr. Smith

You don't know that!

^ Yeah, I do, even my 9 year old underdeveloped baby Gaydar knew 😂

So Tony Dow has passed.

^ Yeah, right before he died

I can't believe this is news to anyone on DL.

Rusty Hamer committed suicide at age 42. I didn't know that.

Stanley Livingston (Chip) posted last week that Dawn Lyn (Garrett) who played Dodie and killed off My Three Sons by herself (with help from Beverly Garland) was in a coma from brain surgery......she may be next.

Yup.....the Donna Reed show kids were great casting.....Shelly Fabares looked a lot like Donna and Paul Peterson and Carl Betz were certainly father/son like.....

Sorry didn't realize there was already a thread about Dawn Lyn.

Stanley Livingston said Jerry mathers was there as was Veronica Cartwright.

Poor Rusty Hamer was a classic case of a child actor who was so disarmingly precocious, he convinced you he had great talent. But as he aged, the cuteness, of course, wore thin, and he also was never going to be a looker like Don Grady or Tony Dow, which didn't help his adult career either.

I think Jerry Mathers suffered from the same issues but seemed to have the smarts and the family support to survive adulthood.

R75 . . .

“On the night of January 18, 1990, John Hamer found his brother's body in his trailer home in DeRidder, Louisiana. Hamer had shot himself in the head with a .357 Magnum revolver.“

Randomly: Marilyn Mathers , Jerry's mom, was my Catechism teacher when I was in Kindergarten or 1st grade (whenever my father began the indoctrination). I don't remember much about that first year of Sunday school, but I remember that I liked going because of her. She was warm & bubbly, and smiled all the time (unlike those who followed her).

^ Neat story, Jerry looks just like her 👍

Paul Peterson was once married to Brenda Benet. I never knew that.

I'm assuming the actors who played Eddie Haskell, Lumpy Rutherford and Larry Mondello passed away as well?

^ Pretty sure they did. When Tony died they did a rundown on who was left. Jerry was about it

R83 . . .

“Her first marriage was to The Donna Reed Show actor Paul Petersen in 1967. In 1969, Benet left Petersen for actor Bill Bixby. After her divorce from Petersen became final, she married Bixby in 1971. The couple had a child, Christopher Sean, in September 1974, and then divorced in 1980. After the divorce and until her death by suicide, Benet was in a relationship with future pundit Tammy Bruce.”

R84 . . .

“The actor who played Larry Mondello, Robert "Rusty" Stevens, was born in 1948 and is still alive as of July 2022.”

^ What about Lumpy and Judy? 😳

[quote] Tim Considine (the original oldest brother on "My Three Sons") also died earlier this year. Was there this kind of turnout for him?

Why would it possibly matter to you?

And why would you think anyone here would know the answer to that question?

^ He's the "both sides" troll and ran out of stuff to troll 😏

At the age of 17, Tammy Bruce became lovers with 34-year-old Brenda Benet. Later, Bruce and Benet lived together for nearly a year before Bruce moved out.[] On April 7, 1982, two years after they had first met and two weeks after Bruce moved out, Benet committed suicide at her home during a lunch date with Bruce.

“Frank “Lumpy Rutherford” Bank died of cancer on April 13, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, California, one day after his 71st birthday. He was survived by his third wife, Rebecca, four daughters, and five grandchildren. He is interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.“

I know Beaver's teacher, Miss Landers, Sue Randall died of lung cancer @ 49

Billy Gray has long been a DL favorite!

There's a TON of GREAT photos on Tony Dow's Facebook page, with get togethers over the years with many of those mentioned in the OP's link.

Also a great photo of Tony and his wife with Hugh Beaumont -- all grey, but a big smile -- taken around 1981 or so.