Jackie Cooper's Celebrity Deaths

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

The death of former child actor Jackie Cooper ( not to be confused with the , somewhat less fortunate as an adult and , infamously , ripped off by his parents Jackie Coogan ) inspires me to start a " Celebrity Deaths - That , Um , Don't Have The Most Obvious Connectuions To Our Beloved Genre , As Those Folks Will Tend To Get A Solo Thread , Admittedly..." omnibus thread .

  Directly , Cooper played Perry White in the Salkind/Reeve series of Superman movies , and , as per Wikipedia , about the last thing he did in the directing of episodic TV series that occupied much of his later working years were episodes of the Salkind Superboy series...

  Cooper also starred in the CBS series Hennessy ( Probably the subject of a couple Dell FOUR COLOR COMICS issues anyway , wasn't it ????????? ) , enthused over by our Cmdr. Benson , and another B&W-era series , The People's Choice .

  In pre-TV days movies with ____ ____ made them something of a team

[ClarkKent_DC]

True. There's also Ray Liotta, who somehow never lived up to his early potential from Goodfellas and Field of Dreams.

From Variety: "Ray Liotta, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ Star, Dies at 67"

[Richard Willis]

I was impressed the first time I saw Ray Liotta in Something Wild.

His violent ex-boyfriend character was very scary. When he was dying he looked like a lost little boy. 

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Tony Dow, aka Wally Cleaver has died.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

I checked three sources before I posted, but now I see he's still a...

[ClarkKent_DC]

Sounds like a Tanya Roberts situation.

[Richard Willis]

According to TVline, Tony's wife told his manager that he had died. The manager passed this along. Then, I think, his daughter-in-law told the manager that he was in a bad way, but still alive.

[Richard Willis]

Now he has died, confirmed by his son. Also, a nice tribute from Jerry Mathers.

Tony Dow Dead — Actor’s Death Confirmed After False Report | TVLine

[Richard Willis]

Coincidentally, in 1968, Jerry Mathers was erroneously reported in the press as killed in Vietnam. A man named Mathers with a different first name was actually killed.

Jerry 'Beaver' Mathers Killed in Vietnam? | Snopes.com

[doc photo]

Sad to hear of Tony Dow's passing. Jerry Mathers tribute is very touching.

I still watch Leave It To Beaver episodes once or twice a week. I have always felt that it was one of the most accurate portrayals of boys, their friends and siblings.