BlankKen Osmond, 76, Mischievous TV Teen, Dies. By Katharine Q. Seelye.
He was the memorably two-faced friend of Wally Cleaver, a perfect young
gentleman in
front of parents, a perfect devil when the adults weren't around.
Ken Osmond, who played the duplicitous teenager Eddie Haskell on the
long-running
sitcom "Leave It to Beaver," one moment a smarmy young man when talking to
parents,
the next moment a devilish troublemaker when the adults were out of sight, died
on
Monday at his home in the Shadow Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 76.
His
son Eric said the cause was complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease
and peripheral arterial disease.
Mr. Osmond appeared in all six seasons of "Leave It to Beaver," -- 1957 to
1963, one
of the most-watched television sitcoms of the era -- then reprised the role as
an
adult version of Eddie in the Disney Channel revival series 'The New Leave It
to
Beaver' in the 1980s. He also guest-starred on other popular television series
of the
'50s and '60s, including "Lassie," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,"
"Wagon
Train" and "The Loretta Young Show."
But for the Baby Boom generation drawn into the idealized world of postwar
television
families, Mr. Osmond would always be synonymous with Eddie Haskell, by turns
the
unctuous and mischievous friend of Wally Cleaver, a strait-laced good guy
played by
Tony Dow. The Cleavers represented the classic white middle class family of the
Eisenhower era, while Eddie represented danger in a '50s kind of way -- he
chewed gum
and wore a jean jacket. Mostly, he sucked up to Wally's parents, June and Ward
Cleaver, played by Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont, and then poked fun at
them
when they weren't looking. He treated Wally's little brother, Theodore,
nicknamed the
Beaver, played by Jerry Mathers, as a useless irritant.
"Oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver," was a typical Eddie greeting. "I was just
telling
Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies."
Viewers knew that having the Beaver go to the movies with them was the last
thing
Eddie had in mind, and that he would find a way to ditch him. June would
sometimes
raise a skeptical eyebrow at Eddie, but for the most part she played along with
his
obsequious manner and almost never confronted him.
In time, Eddie Haskell became so indelibly associated with Mr. Osmond that he
found
it difficult to escape being cast as an Eddie Haskell type, and he left
television
and joined the Los Angeles Police Department.
"Being typecast was a death sentence," he told a radio interviewer in 2008.
"I'm not
complaining, because Eddie's been too good to me, but I found work hard to come
by,"
he said. "In 1968, I bought my first house, in '69 I got married, and we were
going
to start a family and I needed a job, so I went out and signed up for the
L.A.P.D."
As an officer on motorcycle patrol, he grew a mustache to disguise himself. In
1980,
he was shot three times in a chase with a suspected car thief but escaped
serious
injury: One bullet was stopped by his belt buckle, the others by his
bulletproof
vest. He was put on disability and retired from the force in 1988.
Kenneth Charles Osmond was born on June 7, 1943, in Glendale, Calif. His
father,
Thurman Osmond, was a studio carpenter and prop maker, and his mother, Pearl
(Hand)
Osmond, was an agent who started taking him to auditions when he was 4.
He soon began appearing in commercials. His first speaking part came at age 9,
when
he was cast in the film "So Big" (1953), starring Jane Wyman and Sterling
Hayden.
Then came parts in the movies "Good Morning, Miss Dove" (1955) and "Everything
but
the Truth" (1956).
Mr. Osmond grew up in North Hollywood and attended North Hollywood High School.
After
graduating in the early 1960s, he started a helicopter charter company with his
brother, Dayton.
When he was completing the last season of "Leave It to Beaver," he joined the
Army
reserves, which accounted for his hair being especially short in those episodes.
Though he was annoyed at the typecasting, Mr. Osmond could not resist reprising
the
character. In 1983, while still a police officer, he appeared in the CBS
made-for-television movie "Still the Beaver," which followed the Cleaver boys
as
adults. That led to the "The New Leave It to Beaver," a revival series that ran
from
1984 to 1989.
Mr. Osmond played Eddie as a husband and father, while his character's two
sons,
Freddie Haskell and Edward 'Bomber' Haskell Jr., were played by Mr. Osmond's
two
real-life sons, Eric and Christian, respectively.
In addition to his son Eric, he is survived by Christian; his wife, Sandy
Purdy; and
two grandsons. Dayton Osmond died a few years ago.
Mr. Osmond wrote a memoir, "Eddie: The Life and Times of America's Pre-eminent
Bad
Boy" (2014, with Christopher Lynch), with a foreword by Mr. Mathers.
Eddie Haskell has so endured in popular culture that a psychological syndrome
has
been named after him -- the "Eddie Haskell Effect." Dr. Ronald Riggio explained
it in
Psychology Today in 2011: "One reason why workplace bullies may not be
discovered is
because they suck up to the authorities while bullying subordinates and peers
behind
their backs. Just like Eddie Haskell from the old "Leave it to Beaver" show
(who
ingratiated himself to the parents while tormenting the Beaver), the bully
pretends
to be a model employee -- but only when the boss is around."