on CBS, the series moved to ABC for its second season, where it achieved more solid ratings. Beginning with the third season, Beaumont also began directing several episodes; including the series' final episode, "Family Scrapbook", often considered the first traditional series finale. In 2014, TV Guide ranked Beaumont's portrayal of Ward Cleaver at number 28 on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time". In 1959, just before production on the third season of Leave It to Beaver began, Beaumont's wife, son and mother-in-law were driving from Minnesota to Hollywood to visit when a car accident killed his mother-in-law and severely injured his son. Jerry Mathers later stated that the tragedy seriously affected Beaumont's participation in the production, with Beaumont often just "walking through" his part. After Leave It to Beaver ended production in 1963, Beaumont appeared in many community theater productions and played a few guest roles on such television series as Marcus Welby, M.D. (starring fellow iconic TV father Robert Young), Mannix, Petticoat Junction, The Virginian, and Wagon Train. In February 1966, he made another appearance on Lassie, 11 years after his first. He also continued to have success as a writer, selling several television screenplays and radio scripts, as well as short stories to various magazines. He gradually left the entertainment business, launching a second career as a Christmas-tree farmer in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He officially retired in 1972 after suffering a stroke from which he never fully recovered. Personal life and death On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1941, Beaumont wed actress Kathryn Adams (née Hohn) at the Hollywood Congregational Church. They had sons Hunter and Mark, and daughter Kristy. Their union lasted 33 years, until their divorce in 1974. Beaumont was a lay minister in the Methodist Church. During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and served as a medic. On May 14, 1982, Beaumont died of a heart attack while visiting his son Hunter, a psychologist, in Munich, West Germany. He was 72. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered on the then family-owned Balgillo Island (informally known when Beaumont owned it as "Beaumont Island") on Lake Wabana, Minnesota, near Grand Rapids. The 1983 telemovie Still the Beaver was dedicated to him. Filmography Television credits References Further reading External links Date of birth missing 1982 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male film actors American male radio actors American