'Leave It to Beaver's' Lumpy Rutherford dies

Carol Memmott | USATODAY

He didn't have Wally Cleaver's good looks, Eddie Haskell's conniving personality nor Beaver Cleaver's penchant for getting into trouble, but Lumpy Rutherford will always be remembered as one of TV sitcoms' first stereotypical bullies.

Frank Bank, who played the plump, troublemaking Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on the popular series Leave It to Beaver, which aired from 1957 to 1963, died Saturday, a day after he turned 71. No cause of death was given.

Anyone who grew up in the late 1950s remembers Leave It to Beaver. It starred Jerry Mathers as Beaver Cleaver, Barbara Billingsley as his perpetually pearl-wearing mother, June, and Hugh Beaumont as his wise but often-clueless father, Ward. Ken Osmond starred as Wally's wise-guy friend Eddie Haskell.

"I was so sad to hear today of the passing of my dear friend and business associate Frank Bank, who played Lumpy on Leave It to Beaver. He was a character and always kept us laughing. My deepest condolences to Frank's family," Mathers, 64, posted on his Facebook page.

Bank, who was born in Los Angeles, played the young Will Rogers in the 1952 Warner Bros. film The Will Rogers Story, but he became a household name playing Lumpy, Beaver's and Wally's nemesis on Leave It to Beaver.

After the sitcom was canceled, Bank made occasional TV appearances, including guest appearances on The Hollywood Squares, Family Feud and the 1983 TV movie Still The Beaver.

His later career as a stockbroker kept him in touch with his Leave it to Beaver pals. His clients included Mathers and Billingsley, who once told People magazine, "Frank is certainly brighter than Lumpy Rutherford, and a very good stockbroker."