Frank Bank, an American actor who lived from April 12, 1942, to April 13, 2013, was best known for playing Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford on the situation comedy television series Leave It to Beaver from 1957 to 1963.
Between January 24, 1958, and the series’ conclusion on May 30, 1963, Bank appeared in fifty episodes of Leave It to Beaver. He was then chosen to play Clarence Rutherford in 101 episodes of the cable television series The New Leave It to Beaver, which ran from 1985 to 1989.
Frank Bank, who played Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford on the venerable television programme Leave It to Beaver, has passed away. He was 71.
Bank passed away on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times, but neither the place nor the reason for his passing were made public.
Jerry Mathers, who played the title role on the 1958–1963, sitcom, revealed to the Times that his former Beaver co-star had just been hospitalised in Rancho Mirage due to sickness.
Lumpy was the ultimate bully, but Frank was a really excellent actor and a genuinely kind person who could play it so well, according to Mathers. “Frank contributed that perspective to the show,” said the producer of the programme, “which was about all the individuals you knew growing up and throughout your life.”
After the event ended, though, Bank was unable to shake the part. Later, he returned to the role in the 1980s television series The New Leave It to Beaver and the 1983 television film Still the Beaver. He appeared as “Frank” in a cameo appearance in the 1997 film Leave It to Beaver.
In the 1970s, he stopped performing for a period and started working as a stock and bond dealer, taking on clients like Mathers and his former co-star Barbara Billingsley.
Before landing Beaver, Bank, who was born on April 12, 1942, in Los Angeles, got his start with an uncredited performance in the 1950 film Cargo to Capetown and other tiny TV roles.
In 1997, his autobiography Call Me Lumpy was released. He described his “perpetual sexfest” of the 1960s and that he “slept with over 1,000 women” in the book.
Rebecca, his wife; their four daughters; and their five grandchildren all survive Bank.