Leave It to Beaver characters

Main characters and cast

• June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is the wife of Ward Cleaver and the mother of two sons, Wallace and Theodore. She grew up in the Mayfield area and spent summers in Riverside, a community a few hours away, with her Aunt Martha Bronson, whom she says "practically raised her." June attended boarding school, dated Ward in her teens, and attended college. When Beaver asks her about her life, she doesn't mention holding down any full-time jobs; she merely indicates that she had a part-time job she was dismissed from when she messed up her books too badly. When the show opens, she is a full-time homemaker and mother, often seen tidying the house, preparing meals in the kitchen, or tending her family. Her outside interests include social events such as weddings and her sons' school events. Many of the later episodes feature brief "after-school scenes" in which Wally breezes through the back door and regales his mother with a short teen-speak recital of his school day, the camera zooms in on June's amusingly-mystified countenance as Wally trots away with a snack in his hand. June has several housekeepers including Minerva, Mrs. Manners, Mrs. Manners' teen daughter Margie, and other unnamed women. Actress Barbara Billingsley appeared in the pilot, every episode of the series, and in the show's spin-offs. Throughout the series' run, she wore either a necklace or a dress with a high collar, jabot, or scarf to hide a surgery-inflicted hollow in her neck which would have caused on-screen shadows.
• Ward Cleaver is June's husband and the father of Wally and Beaver. He is a farmer's son who grew up on a farm near Shaker Heights, near Mayfield. It's never stated Ward went to the same prep school as June, but it is established that they dated in high school and he majored in Philosophy at college. He was an engineer in the Seabees during World War II, and during the show's run he works in an unspecified white collar office job. Co-worker Fred Rutherford is also his friend and the two men socialize outside the workplace. Though Ward speaks of his father and siblings when recalling his childhood, viewers only meet his globe-trotting Uncle Billy. Ward drives a Plymouth throughout most of the series—usually a top-of-the-line four-door hardtop sedan—and plays golf at a country club. Ward and June sleep in twin beds and have a portable television set in their bedroom--the only TV in the house until the last few episodes, during which a rarely-used console TV stands in Ward's first-floor den. In one episode, Beaver allows a tramp to bathe in his parents' bathroom; the man absconds wearing one of Ward's suits and a pair of his shoes. Ward is a good-natured, understanding man who is often called upon to give his sons some moral instruction regarding their choices and behavior. Actor Hugh Beaumont often played villains and heavies in film and television before capturing his signature role as Ward Cleaver. Just before beginning filming a new season for Leave It to Beaver, Beaumont flew from his home in Minnesota to Hollywood while his wife, son, and mother-in-law drove. An accident on the road killed his mother-in-law and severely injured his son. Jerry Mathers later stated that Beaumont's entire participation in the production was seriously impaired by the tragic accident, with Beaumont often walking through his part. Beaumont wrote the story for one episode from the second season, "A Horse Named Nick", and directed a number of episodes in the last two seasons, including the final, retrospective "Family Scrapbook". The character of Ward was portrayed by Max Showalter in the pilot episode, "It's a Small World".
• Wally Cleaver is June and Ward's son and Beaver's older brother. When the show opens, Wally is 12 and in eighth grade at Grant Avenue Grammar School. He is an above-average student and a top-notch athlete, eventually lettering in three sports. Wally is popular with his peers as well as adults and has little difficulty attracting girlfriends, among them Mary Ellen Rogers and Julie Foster. The girls referred to Wally as "the absolute most." His pals include Tooey Brown, Chester Anderson, the awkward Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford, and smart-aleck Eddie Haskell. Wally comes down hard on both Lumpy and Eddie when they pick on Beaver. Wally acts as a bridge in the show between his parents and his brother, often translating parental communications into kidspeak for Beaver's benefit and keeping Ward and June informed of Beaver's feelings, plans, and whereabouts. Leave It to Beaver was actor Tony Dow's first dramatic experience. He would later play the role in spin-offs. The character Wally was portrayed by Paul Sullivan in the pilot episode.
• Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver is June and Ward Cleaver's younger son and Wally's brother. When the show opens, Beaver is seven years old and in second grade at Grant Avenue Grammar School. Beaver is all-boy with baseball, carnivals, comic books, money-making schemes, and animals of all kinds high on his list of interests, while very proper ladies, dance lessons, bathing, and homework test his patience to the limit. Through the series' entire six-season run, Beaver shares a bedroom and adjoining bath with Wally. In one episode, he moves into the guest room after a spat with Wally, but when shadows spook him, he returns to the safety of his old bedroom. Beaver is not the athlete his brother is, but he does play football and wins his school team's Most Inspirational Player award. He also performs in many school plays. Beaver has several one-shot pets during the series' run. Though Beaver has many friends his own age, his best friend is Gus, an old fireman in the neighborhood, who gives Beaver sound advice and tries to keep the boy on the straight and narrow. Beaver wants and tries to do the right thing, but cannot help going astray and usually faces a moral lecture from his father at the end of each episode regarding some misadventure he has suffered or mistake he has made. A recurrent theme is Beaver's gullibility leading to embarrassing results, such as the time he was locked in the school principal's office while looking for the "spanking machine" his friend Larry Mondello had convinced him was there, or the time Gilbert misled Beaver into making a face for the cameraman taking their class picture. Perhaps one of the series' most-remembered scenes, when Beaver fell into a billboard's soup bowl, was prompted by his friend Whitey's challenge to prove that the steam wafting from the soup advertisement's bowl was coming from real soup inside. Actor Jerry Mathers played the role in the pilot and the show's spin-offs.

  Recurring characters

Beaver's friends, classmates, and teachers

Wally's friends and classmates

Cleaver family, neighbors, and co-workers

Special appearances

• Lyle Talbot appeared in two episodes as Mr. Dennison, the father of Beaver's first girlfriend, Linda. In one early episode, Linda is sweet on Beaver and invites him to her all-girl birthday party. Beaver suffers miserably until he sneaks off to a den in the house where Mr. Dennison entertains him with his antique gun collection. Lyle Talbot was father of Stephen Talbot, who portrayed Beaver's friend Gilbert Bates. Talbot had no scenes with his son.
• John Hart, the star of the 1950s television series The Lone Ranger and the syndicated Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, appeared in one episode as a scoutmaster. He also appeared in a fifth-season episode as a forest ranger. Hart was father of Buddy Hart, the portrayer of Wally's friend Chester Anderson. Though his son appeared in the scouting episode, the two had no scenes together.
• Former baseball player Don Drysdale appeared as himself in the episode "Long Distance Call".
• Ryan O'Neal, star of the classic tearjerker Love Story and television series Peyton Place, appeared as Tom Henderson, a young married man, in the fifth season's "Wally Goes Steady".
• Barbara Parkins—Patty Duke and Sharon Tate's co-star in the film Valley of the Dolls—played Judy Walker in "No Time for Babysitters".
• John Hoyt, veteran film and television actor best remembered perhaps for his role as a mad scientist in the sci-fi classic Attack of the Puppet People, appeared as different characters in three episodes.
• Jason Robards Sr. appeared in the third season episode "Kite Day".
• Kim Hamilton, the only black performer to appear on the show, played a maid at a wedding reception in "The Parking Attendants".
• Richard "Dick" Simmons, portrayer of the title character in George W. Trendle's Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, played Mr. Langley in both "Beaver the Caddy" and "The Parking Attendants".
• William Schallert, Patty Duke's father on The Patty Duke Show, played Mr. Bloomgarten, a schoolteacher, in "Beaver's Short Pants".
• William Fawcett, venerable performer in countless early television westerns, played Grant Avenue Grammar School's night watchman Mr. Johnson in "Beaver's Crush".