So okay, the first place I think of him is narrating. He narrated “A Date With Your Family,” one of the great classics of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 pantheon. To the extent that, when my son was a toddler and started telling stories with his toys, I referred to the short in the “achievement unlocked” that I did for the announcement on my Facebook page—And Be Sure To Make A Plate For The Narrator. His voice is gentle and mellow, even if what he’s saying is utter garbage. No wonder there’s so many people who remember him as the kindly father figure of their childhood.
Hugh Beaumont did not start out to be an actor. In fact he earned a Master’s degree in theology from the University of Southern California. He was ordained and served as a lay minister throughout his life; he married Kathryn Adams Doty, a minister’s daughter who filled in for her father once when she was thirteen years old. He served as a conscientious objector during World War II, though gosh but he didn’t mind voting for people who sent other people’s kids to war in later years. They had three children together.
Beaumont did act well before he got that Master’s, though. He started performing after graduating from high school and probably attended USC because of its proximity to Hollywood, since his first film role was in the MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short “Jack Pot.” It was about illegal gambling and came out in 1940. In 1940 and 1941 he would appear in five shorts of the series, plus an Our Gang short, before his first credited appearance in yet another Crime Does Not Pay short, “Forbidden Passage,” this one about illegal immigration. He would do another, “Sucker List,” also uncredited, also from 1941. After an actual credited film appearance in South of Panama, one of those pre-War films where it’s clear that everyone knows a war is coming soon.
Because of Beaumont’s conscientious objector status, he was one of the men whose war was spent in Hollywood, slowly getting more known. It still took until after the war before he was credited more often than not, though it started changing in about 1943. He kept acting, including the MST3K classic Lost Continent (rock climbing!), and mostly switched to TV in about 1951. His last movie was MST3K classic The Human Duplicators in 1964, when you’d think he wouldn’t have needed the money. He’d spent most of the ‘50s with the Standard ‘50s TV Career. Including, of course, many episodes as Ward Cleaver.
By all accounts Beaumont was a nice man. His Leave It To Beaver castmates had nice things to say about him. He directed a few episodes, including what’s considered to be the first true series finale in primetime television. But during the course of the series, his wife, son, and mother-in-law were in a car accident. His mother-in-law was killed and the son was severely injured. He was profoundly changed by the event, with Jerry Mathers saying he often walked through his role after that. Beaumont continued acting and writing; he bought a Christmas tree farm with his wife, though they eventually divorce. He died in Munich at the age of 72 while visiting one of his sons.