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Lassie, a who has starred in many Movies , TV Shows , and Books over the years. The character of Lassie was created by British - American author Eric Knight in ''Lassie Come-Home'', published as a Short Story in the '' Saturday Evening Post '' in 1938 and as a Novel in 1940 . In Knight's story, a young Yorkshire boy owns an exceptionally beautiful and loyal collie, but when the family faces severe economic hardship, the dog is sold to a wealthy nobleman. Both boy and dog grieve over the separation, made worse when the new owner transports Lassie hundreds of miles away to his estate in Scotland . However, the collie's instinct and courage cause her to escape, and the book follows Lassie's desperate efforts to return to the boy she loves. In 1943 the book was made into what would become the first Lassie movie, also titled '' Lassie Come Home '' (no hyphen), which generally followed the plot of the book. Roddy McDowall starred. Since then, there have been numerous sequels, television series and spin-offs. The dog was so popular that it is one of only three dogs awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame , the others being Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart . On the 1954 - 1974 television series '' Lassie '', she had a series of owners, the first two being Jeff ( Tommy Rettig ) (reruns of this era were later Syndicated as '' Jeff's Collie '') and Timmy ( Jon Provost ). Both were farm boys frequently helped out of scrapes by their super-intelligent dog. June Lockhart , who had previously appeared in '' Son Of Lassie '', took over the role of Timmy's mother from Cloris Leachman . Ranger Corey came later and, near the end of the series, Lassie struck out on her own, with no regular human master. The first dog to play the role of Lassie was Pal , originally from Glamis Collies of California. The original owner could not train the dog and hired Weatherwax Trained Dogs to do the job. When the owner couldn't pay the bill, Pal became owned by Animal Trainer Rudd Weatherwax and his brother Frank Weatherwax . Before Pal's death, he was bred with a number of Bitch es, resulting in hundreds of offspring, Nine direct line descendants of Pal have performed as Lassie. All offspring not chosen to be the next Lassie were adopted with spay/neuter contracts. All 9 Lassies have been male, playing a female character. The female collie loses her coat at least once a year making it unsuitable for use year round. Also, the male is larger and a child actor can play opposite the dog for a longer period of time. In 1998 a Canadian film company replaced the line dog and outraged fans staged a worldwide campaign that was spearheaded by www.lassie.net to restore the genetic line dogs to the Lassie series. Lassie was owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax until his death, and then by his son Robert. Today Lassie is owned and trained by longtime co-trainer, Carol Riggins. The current Lassie is busy siring Lassie 10, making personal appearances, a new 2006 movie was released and a tour is in progress promoting that film.. 6 videos were made by Nickelodeon and Sony Wonder in 1994. TELEVISION
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