June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, also with performances on stage and in film. On two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, she played mother roles. She also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction. She is a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner.
Lockhart made her film debut opposite her parents in a film version of A Christmas Carol in 1938. She also played supporting parts in films including Meet Me in St. Louis, Sergeant York, All This, and Heaven Too and The Yearling. She starred in She-Wolf of London.
Stage
Lockhart debuted on stage at the age of eight, playing Mimsey in Peter Ibbetson, presented by the Metropolitan Opera. In 1947, her acting in For Love or Money brought her out of her parents' shadow and gained her notice as "a promising movie actress in her own right." One newspaper article began, "June Lockhart has burst on Broadway with the suddenness of an unpredicted comet." In 1951, Lockhart starred in Lawrence Riley's biographical play Kin Hubbard opposite Tom Ewell.
Television
In 1955, Lockhart appeared in an episode of CBS's Appointment with Adventure. About this time, she also made several appearances on NBC's legal drama Justice, based on case files of the Legal Aid Society of New York. In the late 1950s, Lockhart guest-starred in several popular television Westerns including: Wagon Train and Cimarron City on NBC and Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, and Rawhide on CBS. In 1958, she was the narrator for Playhouse 90 's telecast of the George Balanchine version of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, featuring Balanchine himself as Drosselmeyer, along with the New York City Ballet. series Lost in Space from 1965 to 1968. at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studiostheme park. Lockhart is best known for her roles as TV mothers, first as Ruth Martin, the wife of Paul Martin and the mother of Timmy Martin in the 1950s CBS series Lassie. She replaced actress Cloris Leachman, who, in turn, had replaced Jan Clayton – who had played a similar character earlier in the series. Following her five-year run onLassie, Lockhart made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as defendant Mona Stanton Harvey in "The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor." Lockhart then starred as Dr. Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space, which ran from 1965 to 1968 on CBS, opposite veteran actors Guy Williams and Jonathan Harris. In 1965, Lockhart played librarian Ina Coolbrith, first poet laureate of California, in the episode "Magic Locket" of the syndicatedwestern series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Ronald Reagan. In the storyline, Coolbrith develops a tenuous friendship with the teenaged "Dorita Duncan", later the dancerIsadora Duncan. The two have identical portions of a broken locket. Sean McClory played the poet Joaquin Miller, author of Songs of the Sierras. Lockhart then appeared as Dr. Janet Craig on the final two seasons of the CBS sitcom Petticoat Junction, her character being brought in to fill the void created after Bea Benaderet died during the run of the show; she was a regular in the ABC soap opera General Hospital during the 1980s and 1990s, and was also a voice actor, providing the voice of Martha Day, the lead character in the Hanna-Barberaanimated seriesThese Are the Days on ABC during the 1970s. Lockhart appeared as a hostess on the "Miss USA Pageant" on CBS for six years, the "Miss Universe Pageant" on CBS for six years, the "Tournament of Roses Parade" on CBS for eight years and the "Thanksgiving Parade" on CBS for five years. In 1986, she appeared in the fantasy film, Troll. The younger version of her character in that film was played by her daughter, Anne Lockhart. They had previously played the same woman at two different ages in the "Lest We Forget" episode of the television series Magnum, P.I.. In 1991, Lockhart appeared as Miss Wiltrout, Michelle Tanner's kindergarten teacher on the TV sitcom Full House. She also had a cameo in the 1998 film Lost in Space, based on the television series she had starred in thirty years earlier. In 2002, she appeared in two episodes of The Drew Carey Show as Lewis's mother, Misty Kiniski, alongside fellow TV mom Marion Ross, who played Drew's mother. In 2004, she voiced the role of Grandma Emma Fowler in Focus on the Family's The Last Chance Detectives audio cases. Lockhart starred as James Caan's mother in an episode of Las Vegas in 2004. Lockhart has since guest-starred in episodes of Cold Case and Grey's Anatomy, in the 2007 ABC Family television film Holiday in Handcuffs, and in the 2007 feature filmWesley. In February 2013, Lockhart began filming for, a video game that combines live-action footage with 3D graphics, which was released in May 2014.
In 1951, Lockhart married John F. Maloney. They had two daughters, Anne Kathleen Lockhart and June Elizabeth Maloney. The couple divorced in 1959. She married architect John Lindsay that same year, but they divorced in October 1970 and she has not remarried. Politically active, Lockhart has been involved in the campaigns of Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey. Lockhart is a Roman Catholic.
