Tommy Rettig - Biography

Thomas Noel "Tommy" Rettig (December 10, 1941 – February 15, 1996) was an American child actor,computer software engineer, and author. Rettig is best remembered for portraying the character "Jeff Miller" in the first three seasons of CBS's Lassie television series, from 1954–1957, later seen in syndicated re-runs as Jeff's Collie. He also co-starred with another former child actor, Tony Dow, in the mid-1960s television teen soap opera Never Too Young and recorded the song by that title with the group The TR-4.

Early life and acting career

Rettig was born to a Jewish father, Elias Rettig, and a Christian Italian American mother, Rosemary Nibali, in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. He started his career at age six, on tour with Mary Martin in the play Annie Get Your Gun, in which he played Little Jake.

Before his famous role as Jeff Miller in the first Lassie television series, Rettig also appeared in about 18 feature films including So Big, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (written by Dr. Seuss) and River of No Return with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum. It was his work with a dog in The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T. that led animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax to urge him to audition for the Lassie role, for which Weatherwax supplied the famous collies.

Rettig later told interviewers that he longed for a life as a normal teenager, and after four seasons, was able to get out of his contract. He was also critical of the treatment and compensation of child actors of his day. He reportedly received no residual payments from his work in the Lassie series, even though it was syndicated and widely shown under the name Jeff's Collie.

He graduated in 1959 from University High School in Los Angeles. In 1964–1965, he co-starred with another former child actor, Tony Dow, in the ABC television soap opera for teens, Never Too Young. With the group "The TR-4", he recorded the song by that title on the "Velvet Tone" label.

Post-acting career

As an adult, Rettig preferred to be called "Tom." He found the transition from child star difficult, and had several well-publicized legal entanglements relating to illegal recreational drugs (a conviction for growing marijuana on his farm, and a cocaine possession charge that he was exonerated of). Some years after he left acting, he became a motivational speaker, which—through work on computer mailing lists—led to involvement in the early days of personal computers.

For the last 15 years of his life, Rettig was a well-known database programmer, author, and expert. He was an early employee of Ashton-Tate, and specialized in (sequentially) dBASE, Clipper, FoxBASE and finally FoxPro. Rettig moved to Marina del Rey in the late 1980s.

Later years and death

Rettig made a guest appearance in an episode of the later television series The New Lassie, with Jon Provost, which aired on October 25, 1991. The series featured appearances from two other Lassie veterans, Roddy McDowall, who had starred in the first movie Lassie Come Home (1943) and June Lockhart, who had starred in the 1945 movie Son of Lassie, and the television series (as Timmy's mother in the years after Rettig left the show).

He died at fifty-four of a heart attack. His memorial service in Marina del Rey, California was attended by Roger Clinton, Jr., the half-brother of then U.S. President Bill Clinton, and several former child stars, who were featured in a photo spread in The National Enquirer.

Selected filmography

Notable quotes

• "It really pissed me off — producers had this general impression that whatever talent and gifts you had learned how to use as a kid, as soon as you were 21 it dried up. That was for boys. Girls were a different story. They can go from cute to gorgeous."

• "Yeah, I met her right after I graduated;— 1959. We got married that December; I was eighteen, she was fifteen. My son Tom came in the first year. I wanted to live life as a normal guy. I wanted to know what real life was like. I sold men's clothes, I delivered flowers."

• "I just wanted to have a chance at the real world. Then I found out through working a series of straight jobs that straight jobs suck! But you sell fourteen pairs of Levis and you go home that night and it doesn't make you feel like cracking open the champagne."

• "Out of necessity, not choice, I wound up with my own production company, Potpourri Productions. I had that from 1967 to 1971. Won a few awards for my quality, produced over a hundred TV commercials and business films;— all L.A. stuff."

• "Once in a while there was some TV offer, and I'd take it."

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