Beaumont began his career in show business by perfoming in theatres, nightclubs, and on the radio in 1931. He attended the University of Chattanooga, but left when his position on the football team was changed. He later attended the University of Southern California, and graduated with a Master of Theology degree in 1946. He was visiting his son Hunter, a Psychology Professor in Munich, at the time of his sudden death.


Beaumont was an ordained minister. Ward Cleaver, Beaumont's character on "Leave It to Beaver" (1957), was ranked #28 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue]. A devout Methodist, he originally studied for the clergy but eventually switched to acting, remaining busy as a lay minister, however, throughout his acting career. Spent much of his later years growing Christmas trees on Balgillo Island, which he owned, in northern Minnesota. The son of Ethel Adaline Whitney and Edward H. Beaumont, he was of French descent and was born with a very rare blood type, reportedly shared only with the Hapsburg royal family. Appeared on the sly in educational and industrial films as both an actor and narrator. After suffering his 1972 stroke, he was told by doctors that he would never walk or talk again, but he proved otherwise and recovered enough to do some directing and community theater work.