Actor Jon Provost, who started his Hollywood career at the age of just three when he was cast as Jane Wyman and Sterling Hayden’s son in the film So Big, will forever be associated with the heroic Rough Collie Lassie.
The series ran for 17 seasons and it even made a transition from black and white to color during the ’60s.
Jon joined the series at the top of season four when he and his family adopted the much-loved dog.
Today, Provost, who played the sweet little boy Timmy Martin, is 72 years old but he still recalls the time he filmed the series and the bond he had with the three different dogs who played the role of Lassie, one of the most famous TV dogs there are.
So how did Provost found himself under the spotlight at such a young age?
Well, it turns out that his mother brought him to his first ever audition when he was still a toddler because she was a huge fan of Jane Wyman and hoped to get a signed autograph from her. Luckily, they got a lot more when Provost was cast for the role.
His parents weren’t in any way associated to the world of entertainment as his father was an aeronautical engineer.
”My parents weren’t Hollywood people. My father is from Alabama and my mother is from Texas,” the child actor explained.
“I didn’t have an agent, I got one and that led to more movies like The Country Girl with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. I did about 12 movies before I started ‘Lassie,’” he told Fox News.
Provost added, “I did the show for seven years, 249 half-hour episodes. I worked with three different Lassies. The last dog I worked with, I worked with him for five years alone.”
“We grew up together. For five years, we saw each other five days a week and sometimes on weekends.
Speaking of how smart and how well-behaved the dog was, Provost confessed jokingly, “The actors made more mistakes than the dog. They were more of a problem.”
Once the show was over, Provost went on to stare in other films, but he eventually left Hollywood.
He was married to Sandy Goosens, with whom he has two children.
However, after almost fifteen years together, the couple split and Provost found love again with author and researcher Laurie Jacobson.
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