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Jon Provost | |
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![]() Provost reading his autobiography Timmy's in the Well in 2009 | |
Born | Jonathan Bion Provost March 12, 1950 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1953–present |
Spouses | Sandra Goosens (m. 1979;div. 1993)Laurie Jacobson (m. 1999) |
Children | 2 |
Website | jonprovost.com |
Jonathan Bion Provost (born March 12, 1950) is an American actor, best known for his role as young Timmy Martin in the CBS series Lassie .
Provost was born in Los Angeles. At the age of four, Provost was cast in the film The Country Girl (1954), starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. He then appeared in Back from Eternity (1956) with Anita Ekberg and Escapade in Japan (1957), with Teresa Wright, Cameron Mitchell, and an unknown and uncredited Clint Eastwood.
In 1957, Provost won the role of Timmy Martin in the CBS television series Lassie . He joined the show at the top of the fourth season as co-star with Tommy Rettig, Jan Clayton, and George Cleveland. Midway through the season, George Cleveland died and Rettig and Clayton departed. The show was revamped to focus on Provost as Timmy. The following year, he met June Lockhart on the set, who would play his mother, Ruth Martin, and would remain close friends. On December 25, 1958, Provost and Lassie were holiday guests on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford .
For seven seasons, 1957–1964, audiences grew to love Timmy and his adventures with Lassie. Timmy's canine companion was played by three dogs that were all descendants of Pal, the original Lassie from the MGM films: Pal's son Lassie Jr. and his grandsons Baby and Spook. In a 2014 interview, Provost said: "I worked with Baby for five years straight. Obviously, he and I really bonded. He was my favorite and I also thought he was the most intelligent of the ones I worked with. They were all great dogs." [1]
In 1964, however, Provost was 14 and chose not to renew his contract, although Campbell's Soup Company, the sponsor, wanted three more years. [2]
Provost continued working in television and films, including This Property is Condemned with Natalie Wood and Robert Redford and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes with Kurt Russell. Jon left Hollywood for college at Sonoma State University and chose to remain there, returning for occasional roles. Later, he sold real estate in Sonoma County, California and donated his time to various causes such as the Humane Society, Easter Seals, Canine Companions for Independence and local charities. [3] He also attends celebrity conventions and autograph shows and works for other animal causes. [4]
In 1990, Provost was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award for his role as Timmy Martin on the original Lassie series, [5] and in 1989, he returned to television with a recurring role on The New Lassie series as real estate agent Steve McCullough.
In 1994, Provost received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Blvd. His memoir, Timmy's in the Well: The Jon Provost Story, was released in December 2007 (Cumberland House Publishing, ISBN 978-1581826197). In August 2008, Provost was honored with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the Pocono Mountains Film Festival.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1953 | So Big | Dirk - Age 2 | Uncredited |
1954 | The Country Girl | Johnnie Elgin | Uncredited |
1956 | He Laughed Last | Child | Uncredited |
1956 | Back from Eternity | Tommy Malone | |
1956 | Toward the Unknown | Joe Craven Jr. | Uncredited |
1957 | All Mine to Give | Robbie Eunson - age 6 | |
1957 | Escapade in Japan | Tony / Tony Saunders | |
1957-1964 | Lassie | Timmy Martin / Timmy Claussen | TV series, 249 episodes |
1963 | Lassie's Christmas Tail | Timmy Martin | |
1963 | Lassie's Great Adventure | ||
1965 | Mister Ed | Himself | |
1966 | This Property Is Condemned | Tom | |
1969 | The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes | Bradley | starring Kurt Russell |
1970 | The Secret of the Sacred Forest | Jimmi | |
1992 | Star Time | Paramedic #2 | |
1998 | Playing Patti | Himself | |
2013 | Susie's Hope | Don Vaughan, a former member of the North Carolina State Senate | (last film role to-date) |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | Heroes of Extinction | Henry Price (voice) | 1 episode (audio drama) [6] |
Lassie Come Home is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Technicolor feature film starring Roddy McDowall and canine actor Pal, in a story about the profound bond between Yorkshire boy Joe Carraclough and his rough collie, Lassie. The film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a screenplay by Hugo Butler based upon the 1940 novel Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight. The film was the first in a series of seven MGM films starring "Lassie."
Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a 1940 full-length novel, Lassie Come-Home. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another fictional female collie of the same name, featured in the British writer Elizabeth Gaskell's 1859 short story "The Half Brothers". In "The Half Brothers", Lassie is loved only by her young master and guides the adults back to where two boys are lost in a snowstorm.
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Pal was a male Rough Collie performer and the first in a line of such dogs to portray the fictional female collie Lassie in film, on radio, and on television. Pal was born in California in 1940 and eventually brought to the notice of Rudd Weatherwax, a Hollywood animal trainer. In 1943, the dog was chosen to play Lassie in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film Lassie Come Home. Following his film debut, Pal starred in six more Lassie films for MGM from the mid-1940s to early 1950s, then appeared briefly in shows, fairs, and rodeos around the United States before starring in the two pilots filmed in 1954 for the television series, Lassie. Pal retired after filming the television pilots, and died in June 1958. He sired a line of descendants who continued to play the fictional character he originated. In 1992, The Saturday Evening Post said Pal had "the most spectacular canine career in film history".
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