Robert Weatherwax, a second-generation Hollywood animal trainer and the son of Lassie co-creator Rudd Weatherwax, has died. He was 83.
The late trainer’s son Robert Jr., who has also continued in the family business, announced his father’s death on Friday with a throwback photo of the two of them and one of the rough collie descendants of the original Lassie dog actor Pal.
“It is with great sorry that I announce the passing of my legendary dog training father,” wrote Robert Jr. in the post. “He was born exactly one year after my grandfather’s MGM Lassie – ‘Pal’. I’m proud to be the last representative of the greatest dog training family in history.”
Rudd created Lassie for CBS in 1954 with producer Robert Maxwell. Robert Weatherwax Sr. joined his father on the show in the early ’60s, continuing to carry on the Lassie legacy after Rudd died at 77 in 1985. The family voted to sell the character’s trademark in 2002.
“Due to my father’s genius, we transformed the training of dogs from simple props on a movie set into actors who seemed to behave with human-like emotions,” Robert previously said in his bio. “Dad was a transitional figure in Hollywood animal training, and my experiences with him from childhood to adulthood have transformed my life and made me who I am today.
“I hope that my father’s life-long labor of love, of which I am proud to have shared by his side, will be uplifting in a world that – more than ever – needs some inspiration from the past,” he added.
In addition to his work on Lassie, Robert trained the dog Einstein from the Back to the Future films, as well as animals on Big Jake (1971), The Thing (1982) and Dennis the Menace (1993).
The Weatherwax family has been in Hollywood since Rudd’s father Walter Weatherwax moved the family to Hollywood and got into the business. Robert’s uncle Jack trained Toto in The Wizard of Oz, and his uncle Frank trained Spike, the dog who starred in Old Yeller (1957).
