Tommy Rettig

Tommy Rettig 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), which premiered on September 12, 1954, making him the first boy who tagged after Lassie during the famous collie's 20 years on the CBS television network. He was with the show for four years, after which Lassie acquired a whole new family. As an adult, he was a photographer, tool salesman, computer programmer, and health club manager. Rettig was born in Queens, New York City, the only child of Rosemary (Nibali) and Elias Rettig, a Lockheed aircraft-parts inspector. His father was of Russian Jewish descent, and his mother was of Italian heritage. Tommy began his career at age five, after he was spotted by an acting coach who lived in the family's apartment building. After touring with Mary Martin in Annie Get Your Gun, he landed roles in movies beginning age nine, making 17 films in total, among them River of No Return (1954), starring Marilyn Monroe, and perhaps most memorably as the boy with the vivid imagination in The 5, 000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953). At 12, he was cast as Jeff Miller. He bonded strongly with his canine costar--who, like the whole line of Lassies, was male--and even took him home on weekends (the family had moved West in 1949). That stopped when Lassie became confused about whether to obey his trainer or Rettig. He was busted in the '70s for marijuana possession and cocaine smuggling (The latter charge was overturned), and was also a long time advocate for the legalization of marijuana. After graduating from L.A.'s University High in 1958 and marrying 15-year-old Darlene Portwood, he tried to get back into acting, without much success. In the early '80s, having tried selling tools and managing a health club, he founded an est-like motivation program. But it wasn't until he sat down at a computer to compile a mailing list that he finally found himself At Ashton-Tate, Tom was one of the designers of dBASE III and wrote the essential reference book on it. He built the first add-on library for Clipper, pioneering the public domain tools that make all our jobs easier. Tom wrote articles for Data Based Advisor, appeared on FoxPro Advisor satellite TV conferences, and spoke at many developer events including the FoxPro DevCons. Tom Rettig's Help and Tom Rettig's FoxPro Handbook taught the intricacies of FoxPro. Tom's ability as a programmer was legendary - he was a guru with a Hollywood-famous name. Yet he was one of the most friendly, accessible people you'd hope to meet. Followinig his death from a heart attack at the age of fifty-four, his ashes were spread on the ocean off Marina del Rey, California, from the boat LaSea, with one of Lassie's descendants present to say goodbye.