Mathers studied hard to prove people wrong.
The terms “actor” and “intellectual” are often thought to be mutually exclusive. However, just because someone makes a living as a performer doesn’t mean they don’t value their academic pursuits.
From the time that he was a child, Jerry Mathers won audiences’ hearts everywhere as Theodore Cleaver of Leave It To Beaver. It was a role that would prove lucrative, as Mathers would be associated with the character for the rest of his career.
However, once filming wrapped on Leave It To Beaver and Mathers was left to his own devices, he decided that he might further himself through education and apply to college. According to an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Mathers wasn’t just going to school to better himself; he was also doing it to prove his naysayers wrong.
“I’d been told that actors all were stupid, so I drew up a list of the best schools in the country and decided I’d go to Harvard or Berkeley,” said Mathers, who was accepted at Berkeley. “That was the biggest break of my life.”
While Beaver could be a little bit naive and clueless on the series, Mathers was anything but. According to the article, he majored in philosophy at university, a prestigious major that lent little aid to him shedding his “Beaver” persona. “People think it’s funny,” Mathers said. “They ask me my philosophy, and I tell them I’m a pragmatic.”
Mathers eventually returned to acting, but expressed a fondness for his time in school, both high school and college, because it allowed him to feel like every other normal kid. “I wanted to go to high school and be a regular kid,” Mathers said. “It was great. All of a sudden, I had friends on the football team and did the same things as everybody else.”
