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Meghan Markle was ‘happy’ to leave the royal family, get her social media accounts back

Meghan Markle has launched her latest attack on the royal family, saying she was “happy” to leave in part because she lost control of her beloved social media accounts — claiming her images were instead given to people who were “calling my children the N-word.”

The 41-year-old rookie podcaster insisted in a scathing interview with New York Magazine’s The Cut that she and husband Prince Harry never stood a chance in the UK because “just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy.”

Meghan Markle’s latest royal attack came during an interview with The Cut.
The Cut / Vox Media

She also admitted that their decision to flee royal life — as well as launch legal action against her own estranged father — has torn apart both their families.

“Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process.’ It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision,” she said in the profile published Monday.

Despite this cost, Markle told interviewer Allison Davis ahead of her latest royal-bashing, “I’m, like, so excited to talk.”

During the sitdown at her $14.65 million mansion in California’s celeb-packed Montecito, Markle’s eyes became “alight and devilish” when she asked, “Do you want to know a secret?”

“I’m getting back … on Instagram,” she said, launching into her biggest gripe about her short-lived time as a senior royal — how she had to sacrifice her online life.

Her only Instagram account for a time became @KensingtonRoyal, one shared with Harry’s brother, Prince William, and William’s wife, Kate Middleton — and one Markle had no control over.

“It was a big adjustment — a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life,” she complained of losing the 3 million followers she had spent years growing.

Markle, who has also been royal-bashing on her podcast, said she is “like, so excited to talk.”
Spotify

Now, instead of posting her own snaps, the historic images were shared with royal watchers around the world via the press.

“There’s literally a structure by which if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota,” she griped of the UK media royal pool, sharing the historic images with royal watchers worldwide.

“Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?” she asked.

Her comments did not specify whether she was accusing the press, the public or her new royal handlers of making such racist slurs. However, The Cut stressed that she was notably “still ruffled” over it.

“You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game,” she said.

She also blamed the intense scrutiny for the seeds of Megxit, saying it stemmed from a plan to remove the press pack’s “guise of public interest” in reporting on them because their lives were taxpayer funded.

If they left the country and made their own money, “then maybe all the noise would stop,” Meghan said, saying they hoped at first to serve in other parts of the British Commonwealth, such as Canada.

“Anything to just … because just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy. So we go, ‘Okay, fine, let’s get out of here. Happy to,’” she said.

Markle seemed horrified at having to share an Instagram account with Harry, his brother, William, and William’s wife, Kate.
Getty Images

“That, for whatever reason, is not something that we were allowed to do, even though several other members of the family do that exact thing,” she complained, without citing specific examples.

Finally going back to the UK this summer to help celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee was “surreal” and “bittersweet,” she said, “knowing none of it had to be this way.”

The former “Suits” star admitted that she had initially assumed her TV career would help make royal life a breeze.

“I​​ was an actress,” she said. “My entire job was, ‘Tell me where to stand. Tell me what to say. Tell me how to say it. Tell me what to wear, and I’ll do it.’”

Now, she wishes she had seen movies that forewarned of the likely pressures, such as 2004’s “The Prince & Me,” in which Julia Stiles plays a student who falls for a Danish prince, just to clash with his family.

“Yeah. That would’ve been really helpful. That would’ve been a very key tutorial to have had in advance of all this,” she told the interviewer, who noted she said it “not quite sarcastically” but “with a steel rod in it.”

Despite her “N-word” claim, Markle believes her clash came not from racism but just from her being American.

Her biggest complaint was losing control of her Instagram page, allowing the “very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child.”
Alexi Lubomirski

However, she insisted that being half black had made her brief time in the royal family all the more pivotal, recalling the high praise of a South African cast member of the live-action version of “The Lion King” at the London premiere in 2019, before she fled.

“He looked at me, and he’s just like light. He said, ‘I just need you to know: When you married into this family, we rejoiced in the streets the same we did when Mandela was freed from prison,’” she claimed.

Markle — who has taken digs at the royal family on her new Spotify podcast — hinted that there is likely far more to come.

“It’s interesting, I’ve never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking,” she said.

“I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to,” she said, saying she has only held back because she is “still healing.”

“I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive … But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything,” she said.

However, she would not reveal just how intimate that will get with their upcoming docu-series for Netflix.

While Markle again insisted it is not a reality TV show, she would not elaborate on just how far it will differ from one.

“The piece of my life I haven’t been able to share, that people haven’t been able to see, is our love story,” she said of Harry, with whom she is “like salt and pepper” because “we always move together.”

“I hope that is the sentiment that people feel when they see any of the content or the projects that we are working on,” she said, vaguely.

“What’s so funny is I’m not trying to be cagey,” she said.

“When the media has shaped the story around you, it’s really nice to be able to tell your own story.”

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Could Earth ever leave our solar system?

In Liu Cixin’s short story “The Wandering Earth (opens in new tab)” (first published in Chinese magazine Science Fiction World in July 2000), Cixin portrays a scenario in which the planet’s leaders agree to propel Earth out of the solar system to escape an imminent solar flare that is expected to decimate all of the terrestrial planets.

This story is, of course, based in the realm of fiction, but could Earth ever really leave the solar system? 

“It’s very unlikely,” Matteo Ceriotti, an aerospace engineer and space systems engineering lecturer at the University of Glasgow in the U.K., told Live Science in an email.

However, as Ceriotti explained, “unlikely” does not mean it’s “impossible,” and suggested a way it could theoretically be done.

“The Earth could be moved away from its orbit through the action of a massive interstellar object, flying through interstellar space and coming into the solar system and passing close to the Earth,” he said. 

Related: What if Earth were a super-Earth?

“In this close encounter, known as a ‘flyby,’ the Earth and the object would exchange energy and momentum, and the Earth’s orbit would be disrupted. If the object were fast, massive and close enough, it could project the Earth into an escape orbit directed outside of the solar system.”

Timothy Davis, a senior lecturer in physics and astronomy at Cardiff University in the U.K., agreed that Earth could theoretically be ousted from the solar system, and has his own hypothesis about how this could happen.

“The planets, as they exist right now, are in stable orbits around the Sun. However, if the Sun were to have a close encounter with another star, then the gravitational interactions of these bodies could disturb these orbits, and potentially cause Earth to be ejected from the solar system,” Davis told Live Science in an email.

However, Davis noted that, while this scenario is feasible, it is incredibly doubtful it will happen — at least, in the foreseeable future.

“Such stellar encounters are quite rare,” Davis said. “For instance, we know that the star Gliese 710 is expected to come quite close, in astronomical terms, to the Sun in around a million years’ time — but even this flyby is unlikely to perturb the planets.”

While it’s improbable that external forces will force Earth out of the solar system any time soon, could humanity build machinery capable of shifting the planet to such a degree that it ends up being ejected?

“The energy required to remove the Earth from its orbit and eject it from the solar system is so massive — equivalent to sextillion (a 1 with 21 zeros after it) megaton nuclear bombs going off at once — that this seems unlikely,” Davis said.

Even though such an event is far from probable, what would happen if Earth were to break away from the solar system? What impacts would occur if our home planet ended up being permanently booted into the depths of the universe?

“Earth would fly into interstellar space until captured or swallowed by another star or a black hole,” Ceriotti said, adding that were Earth to leave the solar system, it would probably result in the decimation of much — if not all — of the planet’s life.

“It’s unlikely that the atmosphere would remain: Earth’s global climate is very delicate due to a fine balance of radiation incoming from the sun and energy dissipated to deep space. If this was to vary, temperatures would immediately and dramatically change,” Ceriotti said.

Related: Why isn’t Earth perfectly round?

Davis agreed that most life on Earth would not survive this cataclysmic move away from the solar system.

“If Earth were to leave the solar system, it’s very likely that the vast majority of life as we know it would disappear. Almost all the energy used by Earth’s living organisms originates from the Sun, either directly (e.g. plants that photosynthesize), or indirectly (e.g. herbivores eating the plants, and carnivores eating the herbivores).

“In this scenario, the further Earth moved away from the Sun, the lower its temperature would become. It would eventually freeze over entirely. The only natural source of heat left would be the decay of radioactive elements in the Earth’s crust left over from the formation of the solar system,” Davis said. 

Davis explained that some life may linger but would ultimately be doomed. “Some ‘extremophiles’ (animals/plants that can live in extreme environments) might eke out a living from this energy, but complex life would likely disappear entirely. This radioactive heat would only allow the Earth to maintain a temperature of around minus 230 degrees C [Celsius, or minus 382 degrees Fahrenheit]. At these temperatures most of the atmosphere would also freeze out, leaving Earth as a dead, icy world hurtling between the stars,” Davis said.

Looking far into the future, Ceriotti added that our solar system will eventually be disturbed so severely that Earth will either be knocked out of it, or will be destroyed entirely.

“We predict that our galaxy is on course to collide with Andromeda [our nearest neighbouring galaxy] in approximately 4.5 billion years. Such a large-scale collision of millions of stars is likely to cause a major disruption in the solar system!” Ceriotti said. “It is also foreseen that the Sun will, in the next 5 billion years or so, enlarge and engulf the Earth,” Ceriotti added

So, while Earth will eventually leave the solar system one way or another, it’s not something we will have to worry about for a few billion years yet. Probably.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Arkansas police video: 2 deputies suspended and 1 officer on administrative leave after video posted of violent encounter with man outside store

Two of the officers in the video are deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office and the third is an officer with the Mulberry Police Department, the agencies confirmed in statements Sunday.

The video, which was posted on social media, shows the officers restraining an individual near a curb, appearing to throw punches at the person’s face and kneeing the individual in the side and back.

A woman who is not seen in the video can be heard saying, “Don’t beat him! He needs his medicine!” One officer responds, “Back the f**k up!” while another orders her to get in her car.

The person who posted the video online said her sister witnessed the altercation outside the Kountry Xpress in Mulberry.

Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante told CNN affiliate KHBS that the suspect was wanted for allegedly threatening a gas station clerk in a neighboring town. When he was spotted in Mulberry, Damante said the man was initially cooperative, but then tried to attack the officers, leading to the confrontation seen in the video. The sheriff told KHBS that the suspect was examined at a hospital and booked into jail, while a deputy received minor head injuries during the altercation.

Arkansas State Police identified the suspect as Randal Worcester, 27, of Goose Creek, South Carolina. Worcester is charged with second-degree battery, resisting arrest, possessing an instrument of crime, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, terroristic threatening as well as first- and second-degree assault charges, according to state police and jail records.

Crawford County jail records show Worcester is being held on $15,000 bond. It was not clear Sunday night whether Worcester had an attorney.

“In reference to the video circulating social media involving two Crawford County Deputies, we have requested that Arkansas State Police conduct the investigation and the Deputies have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation,” the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday in a statement posted on Facebook.

The Mulberry police officer is on administrative leave pending the investigation’s outcome, the Mulberry Police Department said in a statement to CNN.

“The City of Mulberry and the Mulberry Police Department takes these investigations very seriously and holds all their officers accountable for their actions,” Mulberry police said.

CNN is unaware of other footage of the incident at this time.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson confirmed that state police would be investigating.

“I have spoken with Col. Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police and the local arrest incident in Crawford County will be investigated pursuant to the video evidence and the request of the prosecuting attorney,” Hutchinson said in a post on Twitter.

CNN reached out to Arkansas State Police for comment on the investigation and did not immediately hear back.

CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.



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First lady Jill Biden tests negative for Covid-19 and will leave isolation

“After isolating for five days and receiving negative results from two consecutive COVID-19 tests, the First Lady will depart South Carolina later today for Delaware,” Alexander said in a written statement.

Jill Biden is joining President Joe Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Sunday. The President arrived there on Saturday evening. He has no public events on his schedule for the day.
The first lady tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday while she and the President were vacationing with several members of their family on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The President returned to Washington the following day for a bill signing before moving on to Delaware. It was the first time Jill Biden had Covid-19, according to Alexander.
The first lady had been taking the drug Paxlovid to help ease symptoms. The President also took the antiviral medication when he had Covid-19 last month. He eventually tested positive for a rebound case of Covid-19, which happens to some people who take Paxlovid.

Jill Biden, 71, is fully vaccinated, having received her second booster shot in April.

During her isolation, the first lady was working on planning for the upcoming fall term for her job as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, a White House official told CNN last week.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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Ukrainian soldier, home on leave, reflects on horrors of war

WROCLAW, Poland, Aug 19 (Reuters) – For Ukrainian soldier Dmytro Dovzhenko, embracing his family back in Poland after six months on the front line has a special poignancy as he tries to clear his mind of the image of a mother and child whose mutilated bodies had been tied together.

He came across the corpses in Irpin in early March as his unit fought to liberate the Kyiv suburb from Russian forces.

“The child was attached to the mother and then both had been blown up,” he said in his small apartment in the western Polish city of Wroclaw, where the family moved in 2019.

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He also showed Reuters phone footage of a hospital he said he visited in nearby Bucha, where the bodies of people of all ages had been laid out as part of the Ukrainian clean-up operation.

Russian forces are accused of committing atrocities while occupying the once leafy town outside the capital early in the near six-month-old war.

Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in the war and called allegations that its forces executed civilians in Bucha a “monstrous forgery”.

The defence ministry in Moscow did not respond to a request for comment on Dovzhenko’s accounts of the war, which Reuters was not able to independently verify.

One of thousands of soldiers thought to have come from abroad to fight in Ukraine, the 41-year-old – who has also seen action in the south near Kherson – can now savour the simple daily activities he has been missing since late February.

He has spent his short time back home before he returns to the front cooking, cuddling his two small children and going for long walks with his wife Oleksandra.

“I don’t really know, I might have a very small chance of being able to return (again) to my wife and kids. But this work needs to be done,” said Dovzhenko, who runs an organisation of Ukrainian veterans living abroad.

‘WE NEED A LOT OF WEAPONS’

He fought against Russian troops in the eastern Donbas region in 2014, the year that Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine, but this time the conflict is more brutal, he said.

“There used to be a battle line – our country is here and there was a legal delineation. Now there’s no such line. And all of the rockets, the shots, everything that Russia is using now wasn’t there before,” Dovzhenko said.

With no sign of a let-up in the Russian advance and the Ukrainian army outgunned, Dovzhenko has little patience for western voices that express concern at the course of the war but offer no tangible help.

“Someone is very concerned while there are rockets falling on our heads. If you’re so concerned, we can switch spots. I invite them to Kharkiv or Mykolaiv. Their concern will be very much needed there,” Dovzhenko said.

“We just don’t have enough weapons right now. We need a lot of weapons, artillery, we need rocket systems and we need new handguns for the infantry. We also need a lot of technical help.”

Trying to reconcile the stark contrast between life in Ukraine and in Poland, things he once found normal, like streets full of pedestrians, suddenly seemed bizarre.

“I was driving and a helicopter was flying over the route. Maybe it was the police, maybe an ambulance, I don’t know,” he said.

“I almost had an accident because I wanted to turn off suddenly, because in Ukraine if you see a helicopter it means you’re about to fight. So I told myself, stop, stop, stop, stop.”

But, with the sun shining in Wroclaw, Dovzhenko and his wife stayed focused on trying to enjoy their last hours together before he returned to Ukraine.

“When he’s here, it’s always a holiday,” a tearful Oleksandra said. “He’s a wonderful husband and father… We are doing everything so we can be together.”

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Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Kuba Stezycki; editing by John Stonestreet

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Watch SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule leave ISS Thursday

A SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule will leave the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday morning (Aug. 18), and you can watch it live.

The robotic Dragon is scheduled to depart the orbiting lab Thursday around 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT). Watch the action live in the window above, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency (opens in new tab). Coverage will begin at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT).

The Dragon launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 14 and arrived at the ISS two days later with about 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of supplies and scientific hardware for the occupants of the orbiting lab. 

Related: SpaceX’s Dragon: 1st private craft to reach the space station

A robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule approaches the International Space Station on July 16, 2022, on the company’s CRS-25 mission for NASA. (Image credit: NASA)

The freighter is scheduled to come back to Earth in an ocean splashdown off the Florida coast on Friday (Aug. 19), NASA officials said. It’s packed for the return trip with roughly 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg) of experiments and other gear for researchers to analyze.

Dragon’s current mission is called Commercial Resupply Services 25, or CRS-25 for short. As that name suggests, it’s the 25th contracted cargo flight that SpaceX has flown to the ISS for NASA.

SpaceX also holds a separate NASA deal to fly astronaut missions to and from the orbiting lab, which it does with the crewed version of Dragon. SpaceX is in the middle of the fourth of these astronaut missions, called Crew-4, and is scheduled to launch Crew-5 toward the end of next month.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).  



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American Airlines rebooked a mom on a flight home that would have forced her to leave her 7- and 8-year-old sons behind for days in NYC

Sarah Ripmaster and her two sons during their travel adventure.Sarah Ripmaster/Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

  • Sarah Ripmaster woke up to an email saying her flight had changed but her sons weren’t included.

  • American Airlines didn’t add her 7- and 8-year-old boys to her new flight from LaGuardia airport.

  • Airline wanted to put the boys on a Tuesday flight but they would have been left alone in New York.

A mother of two boys, ages seven and eight, woke up Saturday morning thinking she’d be heading home.

But then an email from American Airlines changed everything.

Sarah Ripmaster was supposed to fly back home from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Chicago O’Hare International Airport Saturday, until she realized that American had rebooked her, but not her kids.

Ripmaster said the first thing she felt when she realized what had happened was fear.

“I woke up in New York City yesterday to a notice that our flight to ORD had been cancelled due to lack of crew. I had a different record locator than my boys, but they were linked together in the system,” Ripmaster, who works for a social media technology platform, told Insider.

She said she was rebooked to leave later Saturday, but “the system had unlinked my boys’ reservation (from mine) and said the next flight they could get them on was Tuesday out of LGA.”

Ripmaster then spent hours on the phone with customer service trying to fix the frustrating situation. “When I did reach someone, the American Airlines woman I spoke to was amazing and helpful – but the process is broken,” she said.

Ripmaster’s two sons aged 8 and 7.Sarah Ripmaster

Ripmaster and her boys finally were rebooked to fly together through Nashville, where they were Sunday at the time of her discussion with Insider. She said they were flying back home, to Chicago, later in the day, although that flight was delayed.

Ripmaster said she is an Executive Platinum member, and so she was most surprised that she wasn’t offered any form of compensation. “I’m very frustrated, but mostly wonder what people that don’t have resources do in this situation.”

She said thankfully she was able to get a hotel and meals. “We are okay, but what about so many others who don’t have these resources to bounce back?”

American Airlines didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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Tony Dow, the all-American Wally on ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ dies at 77

Tony Dow, the actor who endeared himself to millions of TV viewers as Wally Cleaver, the all-American big brother on the wholesome sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” died July 27 at his home in Topanga, Calif. He was 77.

The cause was complications from liver cancer, said his manager, Frank Bilotta. Mr. Dow’s managerial team incorrectly announced his death a day earlier, relying on erroneous family information.

“Leave It to Beaver,” airing from 1957 to 1963, depicted an idyllic suburban postwar American household and became a cultural touchstone of the baby-boom generation. Hugh Beaumont was the handsome, ever-patient father, Ward Cleaver, and Barbara Billingsley played the glamorous and understanding matriarch, June, who vacuumed in high heels and always tucked her boys into their beds.

Cast as the adorable title character — the exuberant, freckle-faced Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver — was Jerry Mathers, who was 8 when the show began. Mr. Dow, who was 12, played the good-natured and athletic older son, Wally, who was developing an interest in girls. Ken Osmond had a memorable, recurring role as Wally’s insincere friend Eddie, who is always kissing up to the adults.

The sitcom began on CBS but appeared for most of its run on the third-place ABC network and never was a big ratings success. But thanks to its gentle, wry humor and an appealing ensemble cast, it thrived in syndication far longer than more popular family sitcoms of that era, including “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” “Father Knows Best” and “The Donna Reed Show,” TV scholar Robert Thompson has noted.

With his light-brown hair, electric-blue eyes and the athletic build of a championship diver — which he was before joining the show — Mr. Dow was promoted as a teen heartthrob and received more than 1,000 fan letters a week at the sitcom’s peak. Years later, Mathers recalled Mr. Dow was much like his “cool” character: soft-spoken, suave and possessed of gymnastics skills that he showed off by walking up and down a flight of stairs on his hands.

Finding that options for a former child actor were limited, Mr. Dow was making a living on the dinner-theater circuit in the 1970s. One producer, mounting a Kansas City, Mo., production of the swinging-bachelor farce “Boeing, Boeing,” had the idea of reuniting Mr. Dow and Mathers. To their shock, they met with packed and wildly enthusiastic audiences for weeks.

The two actors toured in another romp, “So Long, Stanley!,” for more than a year before Hollywood producers hired them and other surviving members of the original “Leave It to Beaver” cast — Beaumont had died in 1982 — for a CBS-TV movie reunion, “Still the Beaver” (1983).

Wally was now a successful lawyer, Beaver was unemployed, divorced and trying to cope with his own mischievous sons, and June was still dispensing helpful household advice. The program was a ratings smash and spawned two sitcoms, notably “The New Leave It to Beaver” on Ted Turner’s superstation, WTBS, from 1986 to 1989.

Many critics likened watching the “Beaver” revivals to entering a time warp. But Mr. Dow defended the enduring appeal of the idealized Cleavers amid a rapidly changing TV culture.

“When I see a show about drugs, it can be an interesting story and I can get involved, but it doesn’t have the same kind of identification as when Beaver took his father’s electric drill and made a hole in the garage door,” Mr. Dow told the Houston Chronicle in 1988. “Those kind of stories are what make up real life, and growing up from child to adulthood. People say the show is milk and cookies, but I disagree. I think it’s the essence of growing up.”

Anthony Lee Dow was born in Hollywood on April 13, 1945, and grew up in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles. His mother was a onetime Mack Sennett “Bathing Beauty” who became a body double for silent-movie star Clara Bow and, briefly, a stuntwoman in westerns. His father designed, built and remodeled houses.

Mr. Dow said he grew up with no particular interest in show business, focusing instead on athletics. He was a trampolinist as well as a swimmer and a Junior Olympic and Western states diving champion. In 1956, when he was 11, he was asked by a lifeguard, an older guy with acting ambitions, to audition with him for a family-adventure TV show called “Johnny Wildlife.”

“He thought that would help him and me get the job since I was supposed to play his son,” Mr. Dow told the New York Daily News. “He didn’t get the role, but I did.” The pilot didn’t sell, and Mr. Dow was soon back to the swimming life, until the next year, when the producers of “Leave It to Beaver” came looking for a new Wally.

The child actor from the “Beaver” pilot had an unfortunate growth spurt, and one of the producers of “Johnny Wildlife” recommended Mr. Dow as a replacement.

After production of “Leave It to Beaver” ended, Mr. Dow studied painting and psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles, played dramatic and comedic guest parts on various TV series, and appeared on a daytime teenage soap opera called “Never Too Young.” But after he joined the National Guard in the mid-1960s, he said, his career stalled. Not knowing when he might be ordered to report for active duty made it almost impossible to make acting commitments.

Referring to a popular police show, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I did one ‘Adam-12’ — I think because I was the only actor in town at that time with short hair.”

For years, he lived on a boat, made sculpture and lived on income earned primarily by running a construction business. Despite the perpetual airplay of “Leave It to Beaver,” Mr. Dow did not grow wealthy from the show. Because of a contract stipulation, he received residual payments for only four years after the sitcom went into syndication.

Beginning in his 20s, he said, he began a long and gradual descent into clinical depression. “I’d say inheritance had more to do with it than acting,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “It was an illness prevalent on my mother’s side of the family. But certainly ‘Leave It to Beaver’ had something to do with it. Certainly it had something to do with raising one’s expectations and establishing a certain criteria that you would expect to continue in life.”

Attempts to get back into acting only exacerbated his dark moods. He had played killers, single fathers and lawmen on other shows, but casting agents could not overcome their perception of him as clean-cut and earnest Wally. That so few people talked openly of depression complicated his private struggle, he said, and for years, he could not find ways to manage what he called a “self-absorbing feeling of worthlessness, of hopelessness.”

He was nearing 40 before he began to stabilize, thanks to what he called a major improvement in available drug treatments. In frequent speeches on mental health, Mr. Dow noted that he was “just one of millions” who have depression. “If Wally Cleaver can be depressed,” he said, “anybody can be.”

Turning away from acting to focus on other art forms also helped. He had modest success as a sculptor, with work appearing in galleries and international exhibitions. Starting with “The New Leave It to Beaver” in 1988, Mr. Dow also began a career as a TV director, and his credits included episodes of “Babylon 5” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

His first marriage, to Carol Marlow, ended in divorce. In 1980, he married Lauren Shulkind, whom he met when she was working for an advertising firm and looking for an “all-American guy” to cast in a McDonald’s commercial. In addition to his wife, survivors include a son from his first marriage, Christopher; a brother; and a granddaughter.

In interviews, Mathers said there was a great deal of Mr. Dow in Wally, that the character was less a performance than a reflection. He was, by all accounts, an understated personality in a profession full of showoffs.

“I could never understand the reaction that Jerry or I would get from people,” Mr. Dow told the Kansas City Star in 2003. “Then I was on a plane once and I walked by this guy, and he looked really familiar to me. I asked a stewardess, ‘Who’s that guy?’ And she said, ‘Oh, that’s [Harlem Globetrotter] Meadowlark Lemon.’ And the biggest smile came across my face.

“All of a sudden I realized what it is,” he continued. “I mean, I don’t know what it is — but it happened to me. I just got that warm feeling and smiled and thought, ‘You know, that’s really cool.’ ”

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‘Leave It to Beaver’ star Tony Dow dead at 77

Tony Dow, best known for his role as big brother Wally in the classic TV sitcom “Leave It to Beaver” has died. He was 77.

“We have received confirmation from Christopher, Tony’s son, that Tony passed away earlier this morning, with his loving family at his side to see him through this journey,” an announcement read on Dow’s Facebook account Wednesday afternoon.

“We know that the world is collectively saddened by the loss of this incredible man. He gave so much to us all and was loved by so many. One fan said it best — ‘It is rare when there is a person who is so universally loved like Tony,’” the statement added.

His son Christopher called it “a very sad day” in the announcement.

“Although this is a very sad day, I have comfort and peace that he is in a better place. He was the best Dad anyone could ask for. He was my coach, my mentor, my voice of reason, my best friend, my best man in my wedding, and my hero,” he said in the heartfelt tribute. “My wife said something powerful and shows the kind of man he was. She said: ‘Tony was such a kind man. He had such a huge heart and I’ve never heard Tony say a bad or negative thing about anyone.’”

Dow’s death was prematurely announced on Tuesday after his wife, Lauren Shulkind, mistakenly notified the actor’s management team.

Dow’s manager said Shulkind, 75, was “very distraught” over the condition of her husband and believed he had been declared dead.

On Tuesday night, the actor’s son, Christopher Dow, shared an update on Facebook, saying his father was in hospice care and in “his last hours.”

The post came hours after the actor’s management team announced his death prematurely.

In a now-deleted post, the statement — from Frank Bilotta and Renee James — read, “It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share with you the passing of our beloved Tony this morning.

Tony Dow, best known for his role as big brother Wally in the classic TV sitcom “Leave It to Beaver” has died.
Getty Images
Dow (top) played Wally Cleaver on the iconic sitcom.
Getty Images

“Tony was a beautiful soul — kind, compassionate, funny and humble. It was truly a joy to just be around him. His gentle voice and unpretentious manner was immediately comforting and you could not help but love him. The world has lost an amazing human being, but we are all richer for the memories that he has left us.”

Dow and Shuklind announced in May that the “Still the Beaver” star was diagnosed with cancer, but did not reveal what kind.

“Dear friends and fans of Tony Dow, I have some very sad news to share with you,” Shulkind wrote at the time. “Unfortunately, Tony has once again been diagnosed with cancer. He is approaching this reality so bravely, but it is truly heartbreaking. 

“We want to thank you in advance for your caring thoughts. Our Love, Lauren & Tony.”

The Hollywood native’s health issues first surfaced in August 2021 when he was briefly hospitalized with pneumonia and had a “violent cough.”

“Tony’s spirit is positive,” Shulkind wrote on Facebook last year. “He gets his daily exercise by walking the corridors with his his nurse. If he could only get rid of that darn cough. It’s going to take some time.”

Tony Dow’s wife, Lauren Shulkind, prematurely told her husband’s management that he was dead Tuesday morning.
FilmMagic

“For the most part, members of his medical ‘team’ are compassionate, and we appreciate their efforts,” she added. “As well, we appreciate all of you for your thoughts and concerns. Hopefully Tony will be home soon. Poppy can’t wait to get her daddy back.”

Mathers had previously been in contact with Dow and his management team and had frequently updated fans about Dow’s condition over social media.

Dow starred as Wally, the older brother of Beaver (Mathers), in “Leave It to Beaver” from 1957 to 1963 for six seasons.

He later reprised his role in the sitcom sequel, “The New Leave It to Beaver,” in 1983. The show aired for four seasons until 1989.

Dow went on to guest-star on shows like “My Three Sons,” “Dr. Kildare,” “Lassie” and “The Greatest Show on Earth,” before taking on a recurring role on “Mr. Novak.”

Dow starred in all 234 episodes of the sitcom from 1957 to 1963.
Getty Images

He also got behind the camera, having directed episodes of TV shows like “Coach,” “Babylon 5” and “Harry and the Hendersons.”

In 1965, he took a break from acting to serve in the National Guard for three years. He even tried his hand at writing and entered journalism school in the 1970s.

Dow spoke to CBS This Morning earlier this year about his iconic role on “Leave It to Beaver” and how being a child star allowed him to not be independent.

“From the time I was 11 or 12, I was told what to do. I was told on the set. I was told at home. I didn’t have control of my life,” he said.

While the role of Wally defined it, he didn’t want to be in the public eye and he fame that came with it. “I was gonna have to live with it for the rest of my life,” Dow noted. “It’s sad to be famous at 12 years old or something, and then you grow up and become a real person, and nothing’s happening for you.”

In the 1980s, he took on roles in the projects “Knight Rider,” “Square Pegs” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

The ’90s saw the filmmaker take some time behind the camera. He did some directing work on episodes for series such as “Babylon 5” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

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Tony Dow, ‘Leave It to Beaver’ star, is under hospice care in ‘last hours,’ son says

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Tony Dow, known for his role as Wally Cleaver on “Leave It to Beaver,” is under hospice care in his “last hours,” his son tells Fox News Digital. 

“This is a difficult time,” Christopher Dow said. “Yes, he is still alive, but in his last hours; under hospice care.” 

Earlier Tuesday, Dow’s management team said that the actor had died in a Facebook post, but the social media post has since been taken down. 

Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver in “Leave It to Beaver.”
(ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

Dow’s wife, Lauren Shulkind, gave the “false information” to his management team, his son explained to Fox News Digital. Per TMZ, Dow’s wife is “very distraught” and “believed her husband was dead.” She then told Dow’s management team. 

Christopher also shared an update to Facebook, writing: “This is a difficult time. Dad is at home, under hospice care, and in his last hours. My wife and I are by his side along with many friends that have visited. He has a fighting heart.”

Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow in “Leave It to Beaver.”
(Abc/Kobal/Shutterstock)

PAUL SORVINO, ‘GOODFELLAS’ ACTOR, DEAD AT 83

In May, Shulkind announced his cancer had returned — just a month after he celebrated his 77th birthday.

Dow starred alongside Hugh Beaumont, Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsley in the TV series “Leave It to Beaver.”
(Getty Images)

Dow participated in multiple spin-offs of “Leave It to Beaver.”
(Getty Images)

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“Dear friends and fans of Tony Dow, I have some very sad news to share with you,” Shulkind wrote at the time. “Unfortunately, Tony has once again been diagnosed with cancer. He is approaching this reality so bravely, but it is truly heartbreaking. 

“We want to thank you in advance for your caring thoughts. Our Love, Lauren & Tony.”

Dow starred alongside Jerry Mathers, Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont and Ken Osmond in “Leave it to Beaver” during his childhood. The show originally ran for six seasons on CBS before switching to ABC.

The actor participated in the reunion show, “Still the Beaver,” and the show’s sequel series, “The New Leave It to Beaver.”

Tony Dow, known for his role as Wally Cleaver on “Leave It to Beaver,” is under hospice care in his “last hours,” his son tells Fox News Digital.

Dow’s wife announced his cancer had returned in May 2022.
(Photo by Shutterstock)

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Dow was also known for his roles in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Babylon 5.”

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