Jerry Mathers

Jerry Mathers is an American former actor who began his career at age two as a child model and soon appeared in a PET Milk commercial opposite Ed Wynn. Born in Sioux City, Iowa, and raised in California's San Fernando Valley, he moved into films as a boy, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955), playing Arnie, the son of Shirley MacLaine's character. He became best known for portraying Beaver Cleaver on the sitcom Leave It to Beaver, which ran from 1957 to 1963, and he appeared in all 234 episodes. After stepping away from acting during adolescence, he returned in 1978 with stage work, including Boeing, Boeing with Tony Dow, and in 1983 reprised his role in the television film Still the Beaver, which led to the series The New Leave It to Beaver, which ran until 1989. He later guest-starred on television and released a memoir in 1998, and in 2007 made his Broadway debut in Hairspray.