Obituary: Ken Osmond

Actor and later cop and still later actor Ken Osmond, 76, has died.  He is best remembered for playing the two-faced Eddie Haskell in the classic fifties and early sixties sitcom, Leave It to Beaver.  He was perfect in the role, a role actors kill for because they are so colorful.  Of course, he ended up being typecast and decided to quit acting by 1970 and instead worked for the LAPD until he retired in 1988.

I met him a couple of times during the Hot August Nights celebration in Reno.  He was not a very tall man and quit slender.  I remember he smoked quite a bit then.  On one of his visits to HAN, he happened to hold the door open for my (late) sister and me at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino.

He died this morning at home with his family with him.  He had been ill for quite some time.

Osmond also become a motorcycle officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, something he told the Chicago Tribune in 1992 had been a dream of his since he had been a child.

Osmond said he was proud of his now iconic role.

''Everyone knows an Eddie Haskell,'' Osmond told the publication. ''He's the guy who you can blame things on when they go wrong. The ironic thing about Beaver is that it was never a top 10 show during the original network run. It was just another family show that had enough fans to keep it on the air."

That was true. It wasn't a big hit during its initial run. It gained new life in reruns.

I have pictures of him during his visits and an autograph, but they are in storage.  Hopefully they are still okay.  Who knows?

I wrote about him 15 years ago and thereabouts on this blog.

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