For more information on how to get free or nearly free prescriptions, call 1-800-4PPA-NOW, or go to: www.pparx.org.
Information also is available at the municipal offices in Auburn, Poland, Waterville and Freeport.

AUBURN — American icon Jerry Mathers, who starred in the 1950-60s television show, “Leave It to Beaver,” came to Auburn on Wednesday to promote a program to help people get free or nearly free medicine.

Mathers, 61, talked about the explosion of chronic diseases in America, and the need for prevention and control. Prescription Assistance Programs can help provide medicine to those who can’t afford it, he said.

He shared his story of living with diabetes and insider facts about “Leave It to Beaver,” which aired from 1957 to 1963, and ever since as re-runs. Actors from the show still keep in touch, he said. “We’re all good friends.”

According to “the Beave”:

• Laughter on the show didn’t come from a pre-recorded “laugh track” but from secretaries watching the show at lunch. Their laughter was spontaneous.

• The actor who played Eddie Haskell was nothing like his character. Ken Osmond “is really nice.” 

• After the show ended,  Osmond was so skinny he had to overeat for three weeks to bring his weight high enough to become a Los Angeles police officer. He served for 18 years, retiring when shot in the line of duty. “He’s a hero.”

• Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver, is 93.

• Brother Wally, played by Tony Dow, became a successful sculptor, exhibiting his work at the Louvre in Paris.

• The actor who played Beaver’s father, Ward Cleaver, was in real life a Methodist minister.

And Mathers really was Beaver, “a fairly normal kid,” he said. “Beaver is an everyman character.”

From actor to health activist

These days, he tours the country with the ‘Help is Here’ Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America bus promoting programs to help people get medicine to keep heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol in check.

“I know about chronic disease. I have diabetes,” Mathers told a group gathered in the Auburn Hall parking lot.

After years working as an actor, he retired “to live the good life,” he said. He often went out to eat. He started a catering business, providing fine food to television shows such as “Judge Judy.”

“I put on 60 pounds,” Mathers said.

His friend was a doctor, and gave him a free physical for his 50th birthday.

The doctor asked Mathers whether he would like to see his kids graduate from high school? Would he like to see them get married? Hold his grandchildren? Of course, Mathers said. “If you don’t do something about diabetes, you’ll be dead in three to five years,” the doctor told him.

Mathers started taking medicine to control his diabetes. He lost weight and now manages the disease through diet and exercise.

Medicine is crucial for many, he said. Some think because they lack health care they can’t afford their prescriptions.

“That’s not true,” Mathers said. “The Prescription Assistance Program is there to help people get prescriptions for free or almost free. All they have to do go to the Web site or call the telephone number. There’s no excuse for anyone who has a chronic disease not to take their meds.”

After speaking, Mathers signed autographs.

[email protected]

Jerry Mathers shares a laugh with Auburn Mayor John Jenkins in Auburn on Wednesday. The child star of the television show “Leave It to Beaver” came to Auburn on Wednesday to promote a program to help people get free or nearly free medicine.

Jerry Mathers, child star of “Leave It to Beaver,” signed a picture of himself as a boy for Cathy Bray of Auburn. “I’m in heaven,” Bray said. “I just love him.”

Jerry Mathers, left, talks with David Gilpatric of Auburn about prescription assistance in Auburn on Wednesday. Gilpatric, a diabetic who just lost his job at Pioneer Plastics, has no health insurance. He came to the health fair to find out about options he may have.