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Starting her career in films, June Lockhart, who passed on aged 100, found her greatest success after switching largely to the small screen. Having been offered few opportunities to excel in movies from her debut as a child in 1938 until 1947, she thrived on television in numerous popular series, most notably in Lassie.

Her Iconic Role in Lassie

Stepping in from another actress in 1958, Lockhart continued in the show until 1964. Her role was Ruth Martin, married to farmer Paul Martin and the adoptive mother of young Timmy Martin, whose dog was the eponymous hero of the series.

In her role as a housewife, Lockhart somehow managed to avoid being totally upstaged by the intelligent canine. She characterized the show as “a fantasy about families on a rural property in which the dog solves all the problems in 22 minutes, in time for the last advertisement”. After she departed the show, Lockhart remarked: “In six chaste years of playing a country spouse and parent, I was hardly ever permitted to peck my co-star on the face.”

Journey into Lost in Space

Lockhart went directly into another successful series, Lost in Space (1965-68), a semi-spoof science fiction series targeted mostly at young audiences and inspired by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and her co-star played Maureen and John Robinson, two researchers investigating alien planets. Lockhart had to spend most of her time skillfully trying to navigate special effects. As the show continued, the storyline became increasingly less about this interstellar family and increasingly about the boy and his friendship with a robot, and the cowardly villain Dr Zachary Smith.

Initial Career and Family Background

Lockhart’s movie first role, at the young age of 13, had come as Belinda Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1938). In the roles of her mother and father, Bob and Mrs Cratchit, were her real-life parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As British-born Kathleen and Canada-native Gene were both actors in many of films, as well as on theater, it was nearly certain that June, who was born in New York, would enter the entertainment industry.

Her first theatrical appearance, at the age of six, came in a non-musical role in an musical production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1931).

Hollywood Work

When her father was given a contract by a motion picture studio, after his success on Broadway, she moved with her parents to Hollywood, where Gene made approximately 300 films. After going to school in Beverly Hills, June started her professional life in films, mainly in small roles in acclaimed pictures such as Sergeant York (1941), The White Cliffs of Dover (1942) and Meet Me in St Louis (1944). In the latter, she is delightful as a New Yorker at a family party, whose dance card is filled maliciously to stop Lockhart interacting with her sibling.

More importantly, although she did not know it at the time, was Son of Lassie (1945). It was one of multiple follow-ups to the extremely successful Lassie Come Home (1943), in which a young star had played the female character who helps the dog to escape to the family. In the later film, Lockhart played the now grown-up character.

The loving way in which she handled both Lassie and her son, Laddie, hero of a wartime story in Nazi-occupied Norway, was in the minds of the producers when it came to casting the Lassie TV series 13 years later.

Television and Stage Work

Although she was given leading roles in two thrillers, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart decided her movie career was stagnating and that television would be the solution. Before embarking in a different direction, she won acclaim on Broadway in For Love or Money (1947), a comedy for which she won a Tony award as best newcomer.

A additional significant run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a country hotel, where Lockhart is a doctor and maternal character. She also featured frequently in TV cowboy shows in the 50s, such as Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide. Her hectic workload persisted for the next five decades, with a regular role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many one-off appearances were as herself in a 1988 episode of a comedy series, where the presenter finds a stray collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the mother of a dining manager.

Final Roles and Contributions

Her last TV credit came in 2021 as the narration of Alpha Control in an episode of a streaming service’s new version of Lost in Space. In the big screen version featuring well-known actors (1998), she had a holographic cameo as a school principal. She took pleasure in learning how much of an influence the original series had been to later astronauts, and often participated in the agency’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a unpaid spokesperson brought her its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.

Among her limited subsequent feature films was the fantasy, Troll (1986) in which she played a sorceress, with her own daughter, Anne Lockhart, playing her younger self.

Private Information

In 1951 she wed John Maloney, a physician and former Navy doctor. In addition to Anne, they had another daughter, June. That marriage ended in separation, as did her subsequent marriage, to John Lindsay, an designer.

She is remembered by her children and four grandchildren.

June Lockhart, actor, born 25 June 1925; died 23 October 2025