'Leave It to Beaver's' Lumpy Dead at 71 (Report)
Frank Bank, who played Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on the classic TV comedy "Leave It to Beaver," died Saturday of undisclosed causes, People magazine reports. Bank turned 71 on Friday.
Bank's former costar Jerry Mathers, who played the titular scamp Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, reflected on the reported death of his colleague on his Facebook page Saturday."
"I was so sad to hear today of the passing of my dear friend and business associate Frank Bank," Mathers wrote. "He was a character and always kept us laughing."
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Bank played Rutherford in both the original series, which ran from 1957 to 1963, and on the reboot "The New Leave It to Beaver," from 1983 to 1989. However, a description of Bank's 1997 autobiography "Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It to Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life," suggests that his real life might not have exactly mirrored the apple-pie wholesome tone of the sitcom.
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"Frank Bank's story is a sometimes wild, sometimes bawdy, often poignant, always funny account of a real-life Louie Louie who led a nation to California-dreamin,'" the book's description reads.
Born in Los Angeles, Bank appeared occasionally on television after "Leave it to Beaver," appearing in the 1983 TV movie "High School U.S.A." and the "Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour."
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