‘Leave It to Beaver’ Actor Ken Osmond Recalled Being Shot While Working as a Police Officer: ‘I Thought I Was Dying’
For years, Ken Osmond played Eddie Haskell, the sneaky best friend of Leave It to Beaver’s Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow). But after the popular TV show ended in 1963, Osmond struggled to land other roles. Realizing he needed to find another way to make a living, Osmond went to work for the Los Angeles Police Department. His new job as a cop couldn’t have been more different – or more dangerous – than his earlier career in Hollywood.
‘Leave It to Beaver’ star Ken Osmond joined the LAPD
Eddie Haskell was a mid-century pop culture icon. But the role proved to be something of an albatross for Osmond. After Leave It to Beaver went off the air, he discovered he’d been typecast as the two-faced Eddie Haskell.
Playing Eddie Haskell ended up being “a death sentence” for his career as an actor, Osmond said in 2008 (via The New York Times).
Post-Beaver, Osmond landed a few one-off parts in shows such as Petticoat Junction and The Munsters. But steady work was hard to come by. Eventually, he decided to leave acting behind.
“I’m not complaining, because Eddie’s been too good to me, but I found work hard to come by,” he said. “In 1968, I bought my first house, in ’69 I got married, and we were going to start a family and I needed a job, so I went out and signed up for the LAPD.”
The Eddie Haskell actor was involved in a shooting in 1980
Osmond’s work as a police officer came with risks he didn’t face on the set of Leave It to Beaver. A decade after he joined the force, he was shot while on duty.
The ex-actor and his partner were patrolling for drunk drivers in 1980 when they encountered Albert Cunningham, who was driving a stolen taxi. A chase ensued, and Cunningham shot Osmond three times. Fortunately, he was wearing a bulletproof vest. That stopped two of the bullets, while his belt buckle deflected the third, according to an AP report. Still, the experience of being shot was terrifying, according to Osmond.
“I saw a flash of light and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back on the sidewalk, 10 to 15 feet away. I was not able to move. I thought I was dying,” Osmond testified in 1988, during the penalty phase of Albert Cunningham’s trial for murdering a man in 1985. He also said that the incident led to clinical depression and ultimately ended his career as a police officer.
Osmond said his fellow officers used to tease him about his sitcom role
Even while he was working with the LAPD, Osmond couldn’t quite shake Eddie Haskell. His fellow officers were well aware of his past as an actor, he said during an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor (via YouTube).
“I got constant ribbing from them,” he said.
After the 1980 shooting, Osmond decided to return to acting. In 1983, he played Eddie Haskell again in the made-for-TV movie Still the Beaver. That was followed by the revival series The New Leave It to Beaver, which ran from 1984 to 1989. He also wrote a book, Eddie: The Life and Times of America’s Preeminent Bad Boy, which was published in 2014. Ken Osmond died in May 2020 of complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and peripheral arterial disease.
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