Ken Osmond Movies
Supporting actor Ken Osmond is best remembered for playing Wally Cleaver's oily, conniving best friend Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963), a role he has periodically capitalized on in films and subsequent incarnations of the ever-popular series. Prior to getting that role, Osmond -- usually billed as Kenneth Osmond -- was already a busy child actor, playing supporting parts in such big-budget Warner Bros. films as So Big (his big-screen debut) at age eight. He made the rounds of the studios, appearing in Fox's tear-jerker Good Morning, Miss Dove in 1955, as well as the comedy Everything But the Truth at Universal in 1956. It was a year later that he took on the part of Eddie Haskell in Leave It to Beaver, which was produced by Universal's television unit. Osmond's work as Eddie earned him a Youth In Films Lifetime Achievement Award. Following the show's cancellation, Osmond did occasional television work, turning up in one episode of The Munsters (playing -- surprise! -- a troublemaking student) and elsewhere on the small screen, as well as in Paramount's 1967 college campus exploitation drama C'mon, Let's Live a Little, before he left acting. Osmond and his brother founded a charter helicopter company, and he later spent 18 years as a Los Angeles police officer. After sustaining multiple gunshot wounds during an attempted arrest, Osmond had to retire. In 1983, he returned to acting and Eddie Haskell, in The New Leave It to Beaver. The show ran until 1989 and featured his real sons, Eric and Christian Osmond, playing Eddie's sons Freddie and Boomer. In 1997, Osmond again showed up as Eddie in a cameo role in the feature-film version of Leave It to Beaver. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1956
This very lightweight comedy focuses on young orphan Willie Taylor (Tim Hovey). Upset with the prevarications of the adult world, Willie launches a truth-telling campaign at school, with the blessings of his pretty teacher Joan Madison (Maureen O'Hara). Things begin to get dicey when Willie publicly reveals a slightly dishonest real-estate deal mastermined by his Uncle Arthur (Barry Atwater). Crusading reporter Ernie Miller (John Forsythe) transforms little Willie into a big celebrity, and in so doing wins the love of Joan. A good supporting cast helps smooth over the lumpier passages of Everything but the Truth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Hara, John Forsythe, (more)
- 1955
This distaff variation of the Goodbye Mr. Chips theme is based on a novel by Frances Gray Patton. While confined to a sickbed, ageing New England schoolteacher Miss Dove (Jennifer Jones) recalls the many students who passed through her classroom. Among her now-grown-up prize pupils are surgeon Tom Baker (Robert Stack), policeman Bill Holloway (Chuck Connors) and playright Maurice (Jerry Paris), all of whom were able to overcome difficult childhoods and strive for success with the help of Miss Dove. As it turns out, it is Dr. Tom Baker who is to perform the operation that may save the life of his ailing former teacher. A 60-minute TV adaptation of Good Morning Miss Dove, with Phyllis Kirk in the Jennifer Jones role, was seen in 1956 as part of the weekly anthology The 20th Century-Fox Hour. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jones, Robert Stack, (more)
- 1953
This 1953 tear-jerker is the third film version of the Edna Ferber novel So Big. Stepping into the role previously essayed by Colleen Moore and Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman plays Selina, a girl of wealth who comes to a Dutch community outside Chicago as a schoolteacher. Here Selina falls in love with poor but big-hearted truck farmer Pervus DeJong (Sterling Hayden). When Pervus dies, Selina is left a widow with a small son and little else to her name. Through grit and perseverance, Selina single-handedly raises the boy, who grows up to be architect Dirk DeJong (Steve Forrest). Taking a cue from his self-sacrificing mother, Dirk devotes himself to creativity rather than money-grubbing while pursuing his profession. Meticulously produced, So Big is one of the better "saga" soapers of the 1950s, with Jane Wyman repeating her "aging" process from 1951's The Blue Veil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden, (more)
