Pal (dog)

Lassie in Lassie Come Home (1943) and the MGM features that followed Lassie is a female character, but the dog who made her famous was a male Rough Collie. MGM had cast a female show collie, and Pal, owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax, got his chance when the studio filmed a flooded San Joaquin River; he completed the scene in one take and the producers gave him the part. Some accounts say the female was dropped because she shed heavily during shooting. Pal led seven features through The Painted Hills (1951) and appeared as Lassie in two television episodes in the mid-1950s. He died in 1958, and his line continues: a 10th-generation direct descendant, also called Pal, works with trainer Carol Riggins.