Classic TV: Lumpy Rutherford Was One Of Wally’s Best Friends And One Of Our Favorite TV Characters
His name was Clarence Rutherford.
Who??
Oh yeah, you mean 'Lumpy'!
For those of us who grew up with the Cleaver's on 'Leave It To Beaver' (or maybe grew up on re-runs), Lumpy was always a treat when he'd come onto our black and white TV's.
Sure, we loved Ward and June, Wally and 'The Beav', but we also loved their friends. True, sometimes we loved to not like them (not 'love to hate' them, we didn't hate)...people like that rascal Edie Haskell!
And while Lumpy was also a...well, scamp...he was much just just a kind of 'go-along-with' guy. While Eddie would lead the charge into trouble, Lumpy would just follow along and try to pretend to be a tough guy. Oh, and was was also often a foil of Beaver, but only of course when Ward and June weren't around!
So who was this Clarence 'Lumpy' Rutherford?
Well, he was child actor Frank Bank and he was pretty much a semi-regular on 'Leave It To Beaver', appearing in some 50 episodes between 1958-1963. And, of course, he remains Lumpy to this day in re-runs.
Frank Bank became a very successful bond broker in the 1970's, and passed away in 2013 at the age of 71.
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