Jerry Mathers

Gerald Patrick Mathers was born on June 2, 1948, in Sioux City, Iowa, the son of a high school principal. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California, and has a brother named Jimmy Mathers.

Mathers entered the entertainment industry at age two, initially appearing as a child model in a department store advertisement. He subsequently appeared in a PET Milk commercial alongside vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn. His early film work included This Is My Love (1954), Men of the Fighting Lady (1954), The Seven Little Foys (1955), and Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955), in which he portrayed Arnie, the son of Shirley MacLaine's character, a boy who discovers a body in the forest.

His most prominent role came when he was cast as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, which aired from 1957 to 1963. Mathers has said he secured the part after telling the producers he would rather attend his Cub Scout meeting than audition, a response they found fitting for the character. He appeared in all 234 episodes of the series over six years and became the first child actor to receive a percentage of merchandising revenue from a television show on his behalf. The series went on to air in more than 80 countries across 40 languages and has continued generating revenue decades after its original run. His castmates included Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as his television parents and Tony Dow as his older brother Wally. Mathers remained close with Billingsley until her death, describing her as a good friend and mentor. Near the end of the series in 1962, Mathers recorded two songs for a 45 rpm single: "Don't 'Cha Cry" and the flip-side twist number "Wind-Up Toy."

During his high school years at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, Mathers stepped away from acting and led a musical band called Beaver and the Trappers. While still in high school, he enlisted in the military, serving with the 146th Airlift Wing of the California Air National Guard in Van Nuys, California, from 1966 to 1969. The unit was known as The Hollywood Guard. In 1967, dressed in his military uniform, Mathers and child actress Angela Cartwright presented an Emmy Award to Gene Kelly. A rumor circulated in December 1969 that Mathers had been killed in action in Vietnam; he had never seen combat and had not been stationed outside the United States. In 1980, he and Tony Dow appeared alongside Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update to address the rumor directly. Mathers earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973.

Following graduation, Mathers worked as a commercial loan officer at a bank before transitioning into real estate development, drawing on savings from his acting career, during which his starting weekly salary had been $500. He returned to entertainment in 1978, reuniting with Tony Dow for a ten-week run of the comedy play Boeing, Boeing in Kansas City, Missouri. The two then toured the dinner theater circuit for 18 months in So Long, Stanley, a production written specifically for them. In 1981, Mathers worked as a disc jockey at KEZY radio in Anaheim, California. He reprised the role of Beaver Cleaver in the 1983 television reunion film Still the Beaver, which featured most of the original cast. The film's success led to a series of the same name, which began on the Disney Channel in 1984 before moving to TBS and broadcast syndication under the title The New Leave It to Beaver, running until 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Mathers made guest appearances on Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Vengeance Unlimited, Diagnosis: Murder, and Married... with Children, the latter as himself. In 1998, he published his memoir And Jerry Mathers as The Beaver. In 2001, he appeared on a Child TV Stars edition of Weakest Link, where he was eliminated in the first round.

On June 5, 2007, Mathers made his Broadway debut, taking on the starring role of Wilbur Turnblad in the musical Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theatre. In 2009, he became the national spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and its Partnership for Prescription Assistance. In 2018 and 2019, he promoted Leave It to Beaver and other classic television programs on MeTV.

Mathers was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1996. Following his doctor's recommendation, he enrolled in a weight loss program in May 1997 and lost more than 40 pounds, later becoming the program's first male spokesperson. He has been married three times. His first marriage, to Diana Platt, whom he met in college, took place in 1974 and ended in divorce. His second wife, Rhonda Gehring, whom he met during the So Long, Stanley tour, is the mother of his three children; they divorced in 1997. Mathers married his third wife, Teresa Modnick, on January 30, 2011.