This Is What Happened To Your Favorite Stars Of The ’60s Small Screen
There was nothing like television in the 1960s. Sure, the screens were smaller and squarer, and the switches weird, but plenty would tell you that the shows themselves were more fun and light-hearted. Perhaps you remember sitting in front of the box for as long as your parents would allow, eyes eagerly fixed on your heroes. But what happened to the actors who portrayed them? Well, from classics such as Leave it to Beaver, The Addams Family and Bonanza to Lost in Space, Star Trek and The Munsters – we’ll tell all.
40. Ken Osmond
Ken Osmond played Eddie Haskell, the teenage bully on the show Leave it to Beaver. And he partly grew up on the set, being 20-years-old when it finished in 1963. A career change saw him become an LAPD officer – we’re not lying – but in 1980 he got shot and had to retire. Yet it meant he could return to a contemporary version of his old show Still the Beaver in the 1980s, where he made over 100 appearances. That’s some life!
39. Barbara Feldon
Feldon became one of the sex symbols of the 1960s when she played Agent 99 in Get Smart. She hasn’t done many big shows since then, mostly popping up on TV movies and series, but she did reprise the 99 role for a new version in 1995. Still, she’s perfectly content to have 99 being the main thing she’s remembered for. She told Forbes magazine in 2016, “I was just happy to be working back then.”
38. John Astin
John Astin was the man behind one of the most iconic television characters ever, Gomez Addams from The Addams Family. The actor’s in his 90s now, and he’s not really on TV anymore apart from occasional voice work, but he still quite rightly has a dedicated fan base. Fun fact: he’s the adoptive father of Lord of the Rings and Stranger Things star Sean Astin.
37. Walter Koenig
You probably know Walter Koenig best as Chekov from Star Trek, but he had a pretty steady career as a TV actor long before that one world-conquering show came along. During the first half of the 1960s he had roles in, among other things, The Great Adventure, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Gidget. He became a writer in later years but never quit acting, and he’s still doing the occasional Trek convention.