Seen in an episode of "Four Star Playhouse," he played, alongside the equally delightful young Gigi Perreau, orphan kids under the wing of mushy-hearted Lou Costello in Abbott & Costello's last film together Dance with Me, Henry (1956). During the long run, Rusty appeared only occasionally elsewhere. ![]() Playing a 'second banana' scamp to the well-loved comedy star was no easy task, yet this boy showed an incredibly sharp comedy sense far beyond his years and the show ran a very healthy eleven seasons. Rusty's first on-camera role was a tiny part in the western Fort Ti (1953) as George Montgomery's young nephew and was given a role in an episode of the TV anthology "Fireside Theatre." While spotted in one of his theatre stage shows, Rusty was brought in to test for the Thomas series and won the role of "Rusty Williams." His mother and older brother John Hamer would appear briefly on Rusty's TV show. Rusty learned to recited stories and perform skits at various community for service club and church functions. Moving to Los Angeles in 1951, Rusty and his brothers, John and Walter, were prodded by the parents to perform in local theatre productions. The popular sitcom co-starred Jean Hagen as Rusty's level-headed mother, and pretty, pig-tailed Sherry Jackson as his older sister.īorn Russell Craig Hamer on February 15, 1947, in Tenafly, New Jersey, he was the youngest of three sons born to shirt salesman Arthur Walter (who died when Rusty was 6) and former silent screen actress Dorothy Hamer (nee Chretin). It also would have been a big advantage to not doing a show in front of a large studio audience, but on a closed set, with easier retakes and breaks, like Jerry Mathers and Ronny Howard got to do.A deadpan, freckle-faced, curly red-haired, highly talented child actor of the late 50s, Rusty Hamer entered films and TV at age 5 and became a precocious TV celebrity the very next year, trading clever quips with volatile top comedian Danny Thomas as his smart-alecky son, Rusty Williams, on the hit sitcom, Make Room for Daddy (1953), in 1953. I think if the writers had written his part to be more like a Beaver, or an Opie, he might have seemed like a much better actor. We rarely saw him interacting with friends and most of his scenes with Linda involved him teaching her how to do things to gain something from their parents. His character was an operator, sort of like a pint-sized Bilko, always eager to gain something-a privilege or money-in exchange for doing what his parents wanted. Rusty had the quick, one-liners, the amazingly quick retorts for what his father or others said to him-the type of line few people, if any, could come up with that quickly, certainly not that often, in response to what someone else just said. The lines he delivered in large part were like more recent-era sitcom lines instead of being what a realistic kid would be saying. I'm not so sure it was Rusty or the writers to blame. Linda, OTOH, as the new step daughter, just kept saying, "I forgive you, Daddy." It was just real cute. I just saw the episode of when the new family went on the honeymoon together, and Kathy and Rusty and Terry were getting annoyed with Danny for spending a lot of time talking with fans and performing. ![]() So why would his son be as mild-mannered as the Cleaver boys? IMHO Rusty Hamer and Angela Cartwright were two of the most talented kid actors of their time, and even between the two of them, they had a lot more chemistry and comic timing than, say, Buffy and Jody of Family Affair. ![]() In fact, he had his immature moments many times. He wasn't always fair with his kids and he didn't give a lot of wisdom. Danny Williams was not the all-knowing dad who held some traditional job as most TV dads were back then. Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers were different and the relationship they had with the parent characters was different. I thought he and Danny Thomas had great chemistry.
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