Hugh Beaumont

Biography: biography
Born in Lawrence, Kansas, in February 1909, actor Hugh Beaumont rose through the ranks before entering films in 1940. Beaumont's first ambition was to be a minister, but he left it behind, at least temporarily, and began doing stage and radio work. Beaumont later earned a Master's degree in Theology from USC. His first film appearance came in the MGM short Jack Pot (1940; with Tom Neal), which was a part of the studio's Crime Doesn't Pay series of shorts. However, Beaumont's career was stagnating in a series of bit parts until the mid 1940s, when he took over the role of Michael Shayne from Lloyd Nolan in PRC's detective series of films. When the series was resurrected for television in 1960, Richard Denning played the fictional private detective.

Beaumont continued in a flourish of noir releases at PRC, but when the studio was absorbed by Eagle-Lion in 1948, Beaumont's career sagged. Still he kept working in B horror movies such as The Mole People (1956; with John Agar) and in westerns including Night Passage (1957; with Audie Murphy. In 1957 he landed the role of Ward Cleaver in the CBS (later ABC) situation comedy Leave It to Beaver.… Expand