20 Facts About Tommy Rettig

Thomas Noel Rettig was an American child actor, computer software engineer, and author.

Tommy Rettig portrayed the character "Jeff Miller" in the first three seasons of CBS's Lassie television series, from 1954 to 1957, later seen in syndicated re-runs with the title Jeff's Collie.

Tommy Rettig started his acting career at the age of six, on tour with star Mary Martin in the musical Annie Get Your Gun, in which he played Little Jake.

Tommy Rettig's character was a young farm boy who lived with his widowed mother, Ellen, grandfather, and his beloved collie, Lassie.

Tommy Rettig later told interviewers that he longed for a life as a normal teenager, and after four seasons, he was able to get out of his contract.

Tommy Rettig was critical of the treatment and compensation of child actors of his day.

Tommy Rettig reportedly received no residual payments from his several years work in the Lassie series, even though it was later very popular in syndication re-runs, widely shown under the changed title Jeff's Collie.

Tommy Rettig graduated in 1959 from University High School in Los Angeles.

At age 19, Tommy Rettig had a prominent guest-starring role in the January 1961 Wagon Train episode "Weight of Command".

The Tommy Rettig played the part of a 16-year-old boy, Billy, who is traveling with his family on the wagon train.

Tommy Rettig guest starred in the detective television series Peter Gunn, as Kevin Daniels in the 1961 episode "I Know It's Murder".

Tommy Rettig played a young clairvoyant who hires Peter Gunn to prevent the murder of his mother by her new husband Mark Eustis, played by Hayden Rorke.

From 1965 to 1966, Tommy Rettig co-starred with another former child actor, Tony Dow, in the ABC television soap opera for teens, Never Too Young.

Tommy Rettig only co-wrote the song in hopes that the TV soap would use it as the series' theme song.

Tommy Rettig found the transition from child star to adult to be difficult, and he had several well-publicized legal entanglements relating to illegal recreational drugs, a conviction for growing marijuana on his farm in 1972, and a cocaine possession charge in 1976, of which he was exonerated.

Tommy Rettig was an early employee of Ashton-Tate and specialized in dBASE, Clipper, FoxBASE, and finally, FoxPro.

Tommy Rettig moved to Marina del Rey, California in the late 1980s.

Tommy Rettig returned to television after 23 years, making a guest appearance as a grown-up Jeff Miller in the final episode of the syndicated television series The New Lassie, along with Jon Provost, titled "The Computer Study", which aired on March 7,1992; he co-wrote the episode.

On February 15,1996, Tommy Rettig died of heart failure at age 54.

Tommy Rettig was cremated at the Inglewood Park mortuary and his ashes were scattered at sea, three miles off Marina del Rey, California, with the ashes of his friend Rusty Hamer in a combined ceremony.