In this Thursday, Sept. 18, 2012 photo, Tony Dow, actor, director and artist, poses with some of his works at his home and studio in the Topanga area of Los Angeles. When it comes time to sitting down in a studio and carving out bronze and wooden sculptures inspired by the nature all around him, Wally isn’t leaving it up to the Beav these days. Dow, who famously played the Beaver’s older brother Wally on the classic 1950s-60s sitcom “Leave it To Beaver,” is carving out a name for himself in the art world these days, as an abstract artist. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Beav’s brother Tony Dow now an abstract artist
Tony Dow as he appeared in the sitcom, “Leave it to Beaver.”
For the last dozen years, though, Tony Dow has been carving out a new career, as a sculptor with pieces that have shown at numerous venues, including what is arguably the world’s premier art museum — the Louvre in Paris.
This weekend, more than 30 of Dow’s pieces in bronze, steel and wood go on display closer to home at the Debilzan Gallery in Laguna Beach, and they could fetch several thousand dollars each from collectors. But despite his respected reputation as a sculptor, Dow acknowledges there could be as many people at Saturday’s opening reception wanting to rub shoulders with the Beav’s brother as see his art.
“I think it’s hard, especially with the Wally image, to be taken seriously at pretty much anything other than that,” he says with a chuckle and a shake of his head.
At 67, Dow has a head of grey hair and lives with his wife, Lauren, in the wooded Southern California arts colony of Topanga Canyon.
His reputation as a sculptor reached a new height four years ago when he had one of his bronze pieces accepted at 2008’s Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, a 150-year-old art show staged annually at the Louvre.
The modest, soft-spoken Dow is quick to point out that the work — a distinctive abstract piece titled The Warrior — was not placed in the museum’s permanent collection. And if you went to see the show that year you would not have found it anywhere near Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”
“But it was a show that was represented by 20-some nations, and the U.S. had 14 pieces there, and there were two sculptors, and I was one of them,” Dow says between sips of mango-flavored lemonade as he relaxes on a recent hot, end-of-summer day in the living room of his home.
“So it was a big deal,” he adds softly with a shy smile.
Tony Dow, actor, director and artist, poses with, from left, Adam’s Rib, Half Twist and Waiting, at his home and studio in the Topanga area of Los Angeles.
Even now, he still keeps in touch with all the old gang.
“Jerry, I talked to him just a couple days ago,” he says of Mathers.
Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops, Dow still looks about as fit as the teenage Wally did. But you probably wouldn’t recognize him as that character otherwise — except for an occasional Wally expression or mannerism.
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