Robert Weatherwax, a second-generation Hollywood animal coach and the son of Lassie co-creator Rudd Weatherwax, has died. He was 83.
The late coach’s son Robert Jr., who has additionally continued within the household enterprise, introduced his father’s dying on Friday with a throwback photograph of the 2 of them and one of many tough collie descendants of the unique Lassie canine actor Pal.
“It’s with nice sorry that I announce the passing of my legendary canine coaching father,” wrote Robert Jr. within the post. “He was born precisely one yr after my grandfather’s MGM Lassie – ‘Pal’. I’m proud to be the final consultant of the best canine coaching household in historical past.”
Rudd created Lassie for CBS in 1954 with producer Robert Maxwell. Robert Weatherwax Sr. joined his father on the present within the early ’60s, persevering with to hold on the Lassie legacy after Rudd died at 77 in 1985. The household voted to promote the character’s trademark in 2002.
“As a result of my father’s genius, we remodeled the coaching of canines from easy props on a film set into actors who appeared to behave with human-like feelings,” Robert beforehand mentioned in his bio. “Dad was a transitional determine in Hollywood animal coaching, and my experiences with him from childhood to maturity have remodeled my life and made me who I’m at present.
“I hope that my father’s life-long labor of affection, of which I’m proud to have shared by his aspect, can be uplifting in a world that – greater than ever – wants some inspiration from the previous,” he added.
Along with his work on Lassie, Robert educated the canine Einstein from the Back to the Future movies, in addition to animals on Massive Jake (1971), The Thing (1982) and Dennis the Menace (1993).
The Weatherwax household has been in Hollywood since Rudd’s father Walter Weatherwax moved the household to Hollywood and acquired into the enterprise. Robert’s uncle Jack educated Toto in The Wizard of Oz, and his uncle Frank educated Spike, the canine who starred in Old Yeller (1957).
