by Sheila-Ann Bender

Created on: May 28, 2009   Last Updated: May 29, 2009

From Mayberry's cute little Opie Taylor, to Mayfield's adorable Beaver Cleaver, television programming of the 1960's was jam-packed with some very talented and lovable childhood stars. They quickly became endearing household namesin every home across America.

RONNY HOWARD

Now known as Oscar-winning director 'Ron' Howard, he will always be 'The Andy Griffith Show's' Opie Taylor in our hearts. Many consider red-haired, freckle-faced Ronny the number one childhood actor of all time. We loved Opie almost as much as Aunt Bea did.

JERRY MATHERS

Always in a heap of trouble, the adorable Jerry Mathers' was a perfect cast for Theodore 'Beaver' Cleaver of 'Leave It to Beaver'. He won our hearts in each and every episode with his cute smile and innocent mischief.

JAY NORTH

America loved Mr. Wilson's annoying neighbor boy, 'Dennis the Menace'. Jay North did a brilliant job of humanizing his cartoon-based character, and we loved bringing the blonde-haired tornado into our living rooms each week.

JON PROVOST

Baby boomers across the U.S. will always remember Jon Provost as Lassie's faithful master, Timmy. Every week, we were mesmerized for thirty minutes by the adventures of this beautiful boy and his dog-companion, Lassie.

CLINT HOWARD

Ronny's cute younger brother, Clint, wrapped himself around our hearts in his role as Mark Wedloe on 'Gentle Ben'. This was the story of a game warden's son in the Florida Everglades who had a pet bear named Ben. Clint also made a guest star appearance or two on 'The Andy Griffith Show' when he was a very young tyke.

KEN OSMOND

Even though he wasn't the leading character in the popular 'Leave It to Beaver' television series, Ken Osmond did one of the greatest jobs of character portrayal of any childhood actor in history (at least in this writer's opinion). Eddie Haskell became the guy we all loved to hate, and no one can ever forget the teenage con-artist who was best friend to Beaver's older brother, Wally. Ken, cast for the role of Eddie Haskell at the age of fourteen, is definitely an unsung typecast hero, whose acting brilliance was too easily forgotten.

PATTY DUKE

She's the only girl on the list, but Patty is probably the best childhood star of all time. In 1962, she won an academy award as best supporting actress for film version of 'The Miracle Worker', in which she portrayed Helen Keller. At the time, she was the youngest person to ever receive an academy award in a competitive role. In 1963, she landed her own television series, 'The Patty Duke Show', in which she played dual leading roles of Patty Lane and her cousin, Cathy. The series was very popular, and Patty was nominated for an emmy.

There were other spectacular childhood stars of sixties television that definitely deserve a huge round of applause, but in this writer's very humble opinion, these seven were the cream of the crop, brilliantly immortalizing our beloved young characters of television world.

Sources:

Wikipedia.com/Patty Duke

Wikipedia.com/Ron Howard

TVLand.com/Leave-It-to-Beaver

TVLand.com/Gentle-Ben

Jonprovost.com

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