Jerry Mathers-Leave it to Beaver
It would be hard to find someone that could not identify the above picture. The Beave is one of the most well known characters in television history and you would think that Jerry Mathers would have had a long and illustrious career in acting after Leave it to Beaver ended. In reality he left acting to concentrate on high school and join the United States Air Force Reserve in 1966. After making the rank of Sergeant a rumor started that he was killed in action in the Vietnam War. The truth is he never saw military action.
He eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley and worked as a commercial loan officer. Shortly there after he used his invested savings from his acting career to become a real estate developer.
Shortly after, he moved back into acting starting in the comedy play Boeing, Boeing, which ran for 10 weeks. He also appeared with Bill Murray on SNL’s Weekend Update making fun of the previous rumor of his death.
In 1983, he played his titular role again on the reunion film Still the Beaver which was able to cast most of the original actors. The film lead to a sequel by the same name which eventually ended up on TBS and ran for 5 years with a name change to The New Leave it to Beaver.
Much like his original role, Mathers has kept his nose clean all these years. With a few divorces in his past, he has lived a fairly normal and rewarding life. In 1996 he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. This lead to him enrolling in Jenny Craig and losing 40 pounds. He became the first male spokesman for jenny Craig because of this.