Ward Cleaver

Ward Cleaver is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Ward and his wife, June, are often invoked as archetypal suburban parents of the babyboomer 1950s. The couple are the parents of Wally, a twelve-year-old in the eighth grade, and seven-year-old ("almost eight") second-grader, "Beaver". A typical episode from Leave It to Beaver follows a misadventure committed by one or both of the boys, and ends with the miscreants receiving a moral lecture from their father and a hot meal from their mother.

Hugh Beaumont portrays Ward in the series and directed several episodes in the later seasons of the show. Max Showalter (appearing as Casey Adams) plays Ward in the series' pilot, "It's a Small World" which aired in April 1957. Many of the Leave It to Beaver players were featured in their original roles in a reunion movie televised in 1983 (Still the Beaver) and a sequel series called The New Leave It to Beaver that aired from 1985 to 1989. Hugh Beaumont had died in 1982, and in the 1983 reunion movie the character of Ward Cleaver was portrayed as having died in 1977, at the age of 67. Christopher McDonald plays Ward in the 1997 spin-off film adaptation Leave It to Beaver.

Ward's principal dramatic function in the series is to end each episode with moral instruction for one or both of his errant sons. Ward's relationships with his wife and his co-worker Fred Rutherford are asides that flesh out his character.