Tommy was a successful child actor in 1954 when he was chosen out of a field of 500 to play Jeff Miller in the TV series Lassie (1954). He was with the show for four years, after which Lassie acquired a whole new family. Rettig, the only child of Elias Rettig, a Lockheed aircraft-parts inspector, and his wife, Rosemary, began his career at age 5, ...
When I found out it was my last season on 'Lassie' I was ecstatic. I had gotten to the point where I really resented not being able to go out except on Saturday nights. Of course, when I did date girls their parents always trusted me because of my goody-goody TV image. The fools!
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By the time I was 9, I'd done everything - movies, stage, radio, TV. Everybody thought it was real cute for a kid my age to be so sophisticated, but it was murder on my emotional development. More than anything else, I wanted to be normal. I wanted to have friends, go out on dates - just lead a normal life. But things were always going too fast. Then too, I was spoiled as a kid, and still am. I was an only child, and that was about 80 percent of the problem.
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With Lassie, I'd gladly work for free!
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Fact
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While making the movie The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953), he became acquainted with dog trainer Frank Weatherwax, whose brother, Rudd, bought the "Lassie" rights from MGM for an upcoming TV series. Jeff auditioned and, to determine who would make the best Jeff, the brothers invited Tommy and two other child actors up for the part to spend a week at their North Hollywood ranch with the three collies who would play the lead. Tommy won the contract at $2,500 a week.
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In the 1970s, he and his family lived on a farm near Arroyo Grande, CA, where he secretly grew marijuana between rows of corn. His multiple drug busts eventually destroyed his marriage.
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Graduated from Los Angeles' University High School.
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Two sons: Tom and Deane.
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More than anything else, due to his shortness in height (5' 4"), his adult career never panned out.
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TV folklore has it that when the producers had narrowed the casting down to three boy juveniles for the part of Lassie's young master, they allowed Lassie herself to make the final decision. Supposely the dog walked straight over to Tommy and affectionately nuzzled the boy, thus winning him the role.
After appearing with Mary Martin in "Annie Get Your Gun" for 22 months, Tommy was offered more stage roles, including "Peter Pan" and "The Member of the Wedding," the latter play made famous by Brandon De Wilde. His strong-willed mother, however, decided Tommy should go for the movies. Ironically, Tommy won the boy role on Lassie (1954) after de Wilde turned it down.
For the last ten or so years of his life (starting 1984, maybe earlier), Tom was a computer software developer working on business application frameworks. He was regarded as one of the experts; a software guru in the area of desktop PC database applications such as dBase. At the time of his untimely death, he was a central figure in the community of FoxPro database developers and his passing was felt professionally and personally by many who had come to know Tom as a visionary and as generous mentor.
$1.3 Million
