Hugh Beaumont

Beaumont began his career in show business by perfoming in theatres, nightclubs, and on the radio in 1931. He attended the University of Chattanooga, but left when his position on the football team was changed.

In Hollywood from 1940, he rose quickly up the ranks while many of the big stars were serving WWII duty (he was a conscientious objector). His mild resemblance to actor Lloyd Nolan enabled him to inherit Nolan's leading movie persona of detective Michael Shayne in a series of "B" crime films. After the war he returned primarily to supporting roles.

Wife Kathryn Adams, who was an actress when they met, retired from films after their 1942 marriage to raise a family of two sons and a daughter. She did return once, however, to co-star with Hugh in the film Blonde for a Day (1946). They divorced in 1974.

In 1951 RKO Pictures was to start a crime thriller to be called "The Sins of Sarah Ferry". The story was about a courthouse clerk in Binghamton, NY, who finds herself falling in love with a beautiful liar who's accused of armed robbery as well as a hit-and-run charge involving a death. The cast was to consist of Laraine Day, Fred MacMurray, Yvonne De Carlo, Beaumont, Glenn Ford, Howard Duff and Evelyn Keyes, with the studio wanting to shoot on location in Binghamton and neighboring Johnson City. This project never materialized because the plot was considered too close to that of Double Indemnity (1944) and the studio never received a reply from the Binghamton Courthouse or city officials granting them permission to film on location in the area and negotiate a fair payment. Based on that, the studio canceled the project and moved on.

Best known for his role as Ward Cleaver, Barbara Billingsley's TV husband, on Leave It To Beaver - The Lost Episode (1957).

Retired from show business in the late 1960s, launching a second career as a Christmas-tree farmer in Minnesota. He was forced to slow down after suffering a stroke in 1972.

After suffering his 1972 stroke, he was told by doctors that he would never walk or talk again, but he proved otherwise and recovered enough to do some directing and community theater work.

Also wrote and directed several episodes of his famous series Leave It To Beaver - The Lost Episode (1957), including the final, retrospective episode, Leave It To Beaver - The Lost Episode: Family Scrapbook (1963). His portrayal of Ward Cleaver ranked #28 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" in the June 20, 2004, issue.