ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Ken Osmond (June 07,1943~May 18,2020) has passed away at the age of 76.

Ken is best remembered as the memorably sneaky, two-faced Eddie Haskell on the classic Leave It To Beaver TV show which ran for six seasons from October 04,1957 until June 20,1963.

Eddie Haskell was the friend you hoped and prayed that your child would never have.

Eddie was unfailingly sycophantic to adults and those in authority but was really a kid with a low moral code of any kind.

Eddie viewed the world at large with cynicism where everybody had an angle to benefit only themselves because Eddie always did.

Ken was hired for a one-shot guest appearance on the LITB show but so impressed the producers with his character of Eddie that he would reprise the Haskell character in 97 of the 235 episodes of the series.

Later on Ken would join the L.A.Police Department in 1970.

On September 20,1980 while chasing a suspected car thief on foot, Ken was shot 5 times.

Four of the bullets struck his bullet-resistant vest while the fifth ended up ricocheting off his belt buckle.

Ken applied for a disability pension in 1984 due to the PTSD he suffered from that incident.

The LAPD Board of Pension Commissioners voted against Ken by a 4-to-2 vote.

The Superior court later overturned the denial and awarded Ken a lifetime pension.

Ken originally wanted to continue acting after the end of LITB in 1963 but found it difficult to secure roles to his being typecast as the iconic Eddie Haskell character.

He was always grateful for his role on LITB but also said it definitely killed his acting career.

Jerry Mathers who played Beaver Cleaver on the show once said that Ken was the best actor among the younger cast because Ken was a great guy and not at all like his duplicitous Haskell character.

Thank you, Ken, for giving us one of the best characters ever to come out of a sitcom.

And thank you for your service in law enforcement.

[filmdetective]

Pow, you said it so well, I can't really add anything more, except that Eddie was my favorite character on LITB.

[Krel]

He played Eddie Haskell on the new Leave It To Beaver show in the 80s.

I remember one scene in particular. Eddie was a home contractor, and Beaver's kid starts a bulldozer that wrecks the house he was building. Eddie is very upset and wants retribution: KILL HIS PETS! Wally is trying to calm him down, when a very hurt Eddie tells Wally:

Wally, you don't understand. Parts of the house were almost up to code!

I was taking Drafting at the time, and found the scene very funny.

David.