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General discussionKen Osmond a.k.a. Eddie Haskell has passed away(10 posts)(10 posts)
(10 posts)
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Posted May 19, 2020
Ken Osmond a.k.a. Eddie Haskell has passed away. I'm sad about that.

I've always loved Ken Osmond and his delivery of the Eddie character. IMO he gave what was easily one of the very best acting performances ever delivered in any format.

That's why the name Eddie Haskell became a cultural icon and a legend which is still widely known today, over 60 years after he first played the character.

Do you know who Ken Osmond/Eddie Haskell is? How do you feel about them, and Mr. Osmond's passing?
Post edited May 19, 2020 by Ancient-Red-Dragon
Posted May 19, 2020
That's rough. Most of the time he was active as an actor was well before I ever existed, so I can't say I have any attachment to him in the role of Eddie. I do remember him making a cameo in the Leave It to Beaver film that was part of that "turn all the old sitcoms into films" craze of the mid-to-late '90s though.

For me now though, I'm learning he was the focus of some interesting urban legends that I'd honestly never heard of ("grew up to become Alice Cooper", "grew up to become John Holmes"). I guess that's owed more to being a child actor than it is anything else.

It's also interesting that, in an effort to avoid continuous typecasting, he quit acting for a time and worked for the Los Angeles police force.
Posted May 19, 2020
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TheMonkofDestiny: Most of the time he was active as an actor was well before I ever existed, so I can't say I have any attachment to him in the role of Eddie.
His role on Leave it to Beaver was before my time too, but I still watch it and love it. So do lots of other people who weren't around during the years of its original airing. It's a very great show which is timeless in many ways and still holds up very well today.

The movie from the 1990's was terrible and nothing at all like the original series. Ken Osmond himself is on record as saying he thought that film was trash and he very much didn't like it, even though he appeared in it for a couple of brief scenes (and his brief appearance was literally the only good thing about the movie, LOL).

Other than him and Barbara Billingsley, the other original series actors who were alive at the time all refused to appear in the film because the filmmakers changed way too many things and the original actors realized that it wasn't going to represent the high quality of the show.

Although I don't recommend watching Leave it to Beaver on modern television stations, since they heavily butcher the episodes for time reasons, and also they speed up the rate at which it is played back. So best to watch it either on DVD which is uncut and at the original/proper speed, or streaming services which I presume also are uncut and played at the original/proper speed.
Posted May 19, 2020
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: His role on Leave it to Beaver was before my time too, but I still watch it and love it. So do lots of other people who weren't around during the years of its original airing. It's a very great show which is timeless in many ways and still holds up very well today.
My post was not to suggest it isn't watchable even today, just more to provide a background in regard to why I don't particularly have an attachment to the show and its character(s).

The shows that aired in their prime that I watched long after the fact tended to be things like I Love Lucy, Bewitched, Green Acres, Get Smart and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

It's not at all surprising to learn about the original cast's thoughts about the Hollywood film though.
Posted May 19, 2020
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: Do you know who Ken Osmond/Eddie Haskell is? How do you feel about them, and Mr. Osmond's passing?
The only thing that occurs to me is that he is possibly a singer. Wasn't there some Osmond's brothers singing duo or trio or quadruplet in the 70s maybe? Not that I'd recognize any of their songs, first I thought "heyyy didn't they sign that Blaa Blaa Over Troubled Water"-ballad (what an odd name for a song) which was anti-Vietnam war, but now it occurred to me that was Simon & Garfunkel, or was it Tim & Eric Wareheim?

Anyway, IIRC Raimo Häyrinen also passed away recently, but I don't expect most to know him.

EDIT: I checked the IMDB.com pages, and no, I have no idea who Ken Osmond is. Some actor who apparently acted in some US-only TV series a very long time ago.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652119/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

EDIT: Oh, he acted in Happy Days? Was he a regular or visiting actor in it? Which character? Not Fonzie for sure. I do remotely remember seeing Happy Days when I was still in diapers probably.
Post edited May 19, 2020 by timppu
Posted May 19, 2020
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: Do you know who Ken Osmond/Eddie Haskell is? How do you feel about them, and Mr. Osmond's passing?
I remember him slightly from the show.....I also liked watching the show and the main characters(mom/dad/the two brothers).

Every time a celeb I like passed it is sad to hear, and reminds me of how old i'm getting....a bit sobering to think about, sometimes.
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TheMonkofDestiny: The shows that aired in their prime that I watched long after the fact tended to be things like I Love Lucy, Bewitched, Green Acres, Get Smart and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
*Brofist*

Greeeen acres is the place to be....faaaaaaarm living is the life for me.....land spread-ing out so far and wide....take Manhattan but give me that countryside.
Post edited May 19, 2020 by GameRager
Posted May 19, 2020
Currently watching Leave it to Beaver myself, catching all those old movies and TV series that I used too hear so much about, and which only the past 10 years or so have been readily <cough> available.
Ken Osmond steals most of the scenes slimy Eddie Haskell is in.

Quite an enjoyable show, and it's weird to see the husband being the smart one in the family.
Posted May 19, 2020
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PetrusOctavianus: Quite an enjoyable show, and it's weird to see the husband being the smart one in the family.
That show was made way before the current trend of "make husband look like bumbling idiot and the wife someone who can do no wrong" we have now.
Posted May 19, 2020
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PetrusOctavianus: Quite an enjoyable show, and it's weird to see the husband being the smart one in the family.
To me it's just the opposite: what you described is normal, and the weird thing is how modern society almost always presents men as bumbling buffoons in film and tv and advertisements.
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timppu: Some actor who apparently acted in some US-only TV series a very long time ago.
Well no, LITB is not US-only, as it airs in a very large number of different nations, and it's also been translated into many different languages. Jerry Mathers (who played the Beaver character) often tells about how he's been recognized worldwide because the show airs almost everywhere. And he also said that he was confused when people in Japan would call him "Happy Boy," but then he later found out that they did that because the title of the dubbed version of the show in Japan was re-named to "Happy Boy and His Family," because they do not have beavers in Japan.

And that's also why Ken Osmond sued the Screen Actors' Guild, because they were allegedly withholding money that he was entitled to from international royalties from the many non-US nations in which LITB was aired.
Post edited May 19, 2020 by Ancient-Red-Dragon
Posted May 19, 2020
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PetrusOctavianus: Quite an enjoyable show, and it's weird to see the husband being the smart one in the family.
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: To me it's just the opposite: what you described is normal, and the weird thing is how modern society almost always presents men as bumbling buffoons in film and tv and advertisements.
That's what it makes it so weird; seeing a husband/father that is not the stereotypical bumbling buffoon.
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General discussionKen Osmond a.k.a. Eddie Haskell has passed away(10 posts)(10 posts)
(10 posts)