'Leave It to Beaver' actor Frank Bank dies

[LG]

WENN
"Leave It to Beaver" actor Frank Bank has died just one day after celebrating his 71st birthday.

Bank, who is best known for his role of Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on the sitcom, passed away on Saturday.

Bank's character bullied the show's star, Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver, throughout the duration of the six-season series, which became the most memorable coming-of-age TV shows of the late 1950s.

Bank was born in a Los Angeles hospital corridor during an air raid drill in 1942 and became an actor at an early age -- in one of his first roles he played actor Will Rogers in the 1952 biopic "The Story of Will Rogers."

In addition to his role in the "Beaver" series from 1957 to 1963, Bank reprised his role as the dim-witted bully for 1983 TV movie "Still the Beaver," and also the revival "The New Leave It to Beaver" series from 1983 to 1989. He also had a cameo in the 1997 movie, "Leave It to Beaver."

After "Beaver ended," Bank became a bond broker, but appeared on "Hollywood Squares" and "Family Feud" in the 1980s.

Jerry Mathers, who played Cleaver on TV, has taken to his official Facebook page to pay tribute to his former co-star, writing, "I was so sad to hear today of the passing of my dear friend and business associate Frank Bank, who played Lumpy on 'Leave it to Beaver.' He was a character and always kept us laughing. My deepest condolences to Frank's family."

[Rob]

That really sucks. My grandmother forced me to watch that show growing up all the time, so I've seen like every episode. Condolences go to his family.