Hugh Beaumont

Early years

Beaumont was born in Eudora, Kansas.^[2] His parents were Ethel Adaline Whitney and Edward H. Beaumont, a traveling salesman whose profession kept the family on the move. After graduating from the Baylor School, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he attended the University of Chattanooga, where he played football.^[3] He later studied at the University of Southern California and graduated with a Master of Theology degree in 1946.

Career

Beaumont began his career in show business in 1931 by performing in theaters, nightclubs, and radio. He began acting in motion pictures in 1940, appearing in over three dozen films. Many of those roles were bit parts and minor roles and were not credited. He often worked with the actor William Bendix. In 1946–47, Beaumont starred in five films as the private detective Michael Shayne, taking over the role from Lloyd Nolan. In 1950 he also narrated a short film, A Date with Your Family.^[4]

From 1950 to 1953, Beaumont was the narrator of the Reed Hadley series Racket Squad, based on the cases of a fictional detective, Captain John Braddock, in San Francisco. In a 1953 episode of Adventures of Superman titled "The Big Squeeze", Beaumont played an ex-convict with a wife and son whose trust he must win back after an apparent return to his criminal past. In 1952, he played the role of Reverend Randy Roberts in an episode of The Lone Ranger. In Hadley's second series, The Public Defender, which aired on CBS in 1954 and 1955, Beaumont appeared three times in the role of Ed McGrath.^[1]

Before Beaumont and Barbara Billingsley were cast as the parents on Leave It to Beaver, each had appeared separately in the early 1950s on Rod Cameron's syndicated detective series City Detective. Consistent with his interest in the clergy, Beaumont played the Reverend Clifton R. Pond in an episode of the religious anthology series Crossroads.^[1]

He appeared in one of the early episodes of the CBS Western series My Friend Flicka and was a guest star in an episode of Frank Lovejoy's detective series Meet McGraw.^[5] In 1955, he was a guest star in the Lassie episode "The Well", one of the first two episodes filmed as pilots for the new series. He played Mr. Saunders, a water company executive interested in purchasing the Miller family's well.^[1]

In July 1957, Beaumont played a sympathetic characterization of the Western bandit Jesse James on Tales of Wells Fargo. Two months later, he acquired his best-known role as the wise suburban father Ward Cleaver on the sitcom television series Leave It to Beaver. During the show's six seasons, Beaumont wrote and directed several episodes, including the series finale, titled "Family Scrapbook".^[1] His portrayal as head of the Cleaver household ranked number 28 on the list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" in the June 20, 2004, issue of TV Guide.

After Leave It to Beaver ended production and went into syndication in the fall of 1963, Beaumont appeared in many community theater productions and played a few guest roles on such television series as Mannix, The Virginian, Wagon Train, and Petticoat Junction.^[1] In February 1966, 11 years after his first appearance on Lassie, he was again a guest star on that popular series, performing in the episode "Cradle of the Deep" (season 12, episode 21).^[1] He also had continued success as a writer, selling several television screenplays and radio scripts, and composing short stories for magazines.^[6]

Personal life, retirement, and death

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.^[7]

Beaumont retired from show business in the late 1960s, launching a second career as a Christmas-tree farmer in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He was forced to retire in 1972 after suffering a stroke from which he never fully recovered.

Beaumont married only once, to Kathryn Adams Doty, an actress who later earned a master's degree in educational psychology and had a career as a psychologist. Their union lasted 32 years, from 1942 until their divorce in 1974. They had three children: Hunter, Kristy, and Mark.

Kathryn later married Fred Doty (died January 8, 2011). She wrote two novels, A Long Year of Silence (which won the 2005 Midwest Book Award) and Wild Orphan. A third book, Becoming the Mother of Me, described her life growing up as a minister's daughter, her move to Hollywood, and her first marriage. She died at age 96 on October 14, 2016.^[8]

On May 14, 1982, Beaumont died of a heart attack while visiting his son, a psychologist working in Munich, Germany.^[6] His body was cremated, and the ashes were scattered on the then family-owned island on Lake Wabana, Minnesota, near Grand Rapids. The 1983 telemovie Still the Beaver was dedicated to Beaumont.