June Marlowe


June Marlowe was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era. She was best known for her performance of "Miss Crabtree" in the Our Gang shorts.

Career

Marlowe was born to German parents in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She was a prolific actress in silent films during the 1920s, appearing in films opposite John Barrymore and Rin Tin Tin. She began her acting career shortly after her 1923 graduation from Hollywood High School, and was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers in 1924.
In 1925, she became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Her career did well until the introduction of talking pictures. Marlowe did not make an easy transition, and by 1930 she was starting to drift away from acting.
By chance, she happened to meet director Robert F. McGowan one day in a Los Angeles, California, department store. McGowan was searching for an actress to portray the schoolteacher in the Our Gang series of children's comedies. After producer Hal Roach suggested that brunette Marlowe don a blonde wig to match the hair of the lead kid in the series, Jackie Cooper, she was given the part of Miss Crabtree.
In 1928, she was an actress under contract with Universal Studios.
Marlowe and Cooper were paired together in three Our Gang films, Teacher's Pet, School's Out and Love Business. She also had a small role in 1931's Little Daddy. In addition to her work in Our Gang, Marlowe appeared in fellow Roach stars Laurel and Hardy's first feature film, Pardon Us.
Marlowe's Miss Crabtree character was used in only two more shorts, 1931's Shiver My Timbers and 1932's Readin' and Writin'. After Cooper left Our Gang in 1931 she appeared in MGM features.

Later years and death

In an October 1931 notice, Washington's Evening Star newspaper announced that the Superior Court in Los Angeles "returned a verdict of $100 damages to Henry M. Oviatt against June Marlowe, film actress, and her brother, Armour Marlowe, as the outgrowth of a motor car collision," adding that their automobile had "collided with one containing Oviatt and Mrs. Nellie McLaren, who sued for $5,000 each, alleging injuries", and that "Mrs. McLaren was denied damages."
On July 2, 1933, Marlowe married Hollywood businessman Rodney Sprigg and retired from motion pictures to become a housewife. The couple remained married until Sprigg's death in 1982. In her later years, she suffered from Parkinson's disease, dying from complications on March 10, 1984.
Marlowe was originally buried at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery. She was later re-interred in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

In popular culture

The name of schoolteacher Edna Krabappel, a cartoon character from the animated television series The Simpsons, was chosen by early Simpsons writers Wallace Wolodarsky and Jay Kogen in 1990 as a play on the fruit "crabapple" and as a reference to Miss Crabtree from the Our Gang shorts.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1923Fighting BloodMinor roleUncredited
1924When a Man's a ManKitty Reid
1924The Tenth WomanRose Ann Brainherd
1924Find Your ManCarolina Blair
1924A Lost LadyConstance Ogden
1925The Man Without a ConscienceAnn Sherman
1925Tracked in the Snow CountryJoan Hardy
1925The Wife Who Wasn't WantedMary Paterson
1925Below the LineMay Barton
1925The Clash of the WolvesMay Barstowe
1925The Pleasure BuyersHelen Ripley
1926The Night CryMrs. John Martin
1926Don JuanTrusiaUncredited
1926The Old SoakIna HeathLost film
1926Fangs of JusticeJanet Morgan
1927The Fourth CommandmentMarjorie Miller
1927Alias the DeaconPhyllis / Mrs. Nancy Blythe
1927The Life of RileyMolly O'RourkeLost film
1927Wild BeautyHelen Cunningham
1927On the Stroke of TwelveDoris Bainbridge
1928Their HourPeggy
1928Free LipsAnn Baldridge
1928The Branded ManLouise
1928The Foreign LegionGabrielle
1928The Grip of the YukonSheila O'NeilLost film
1928Code of the AirHelen Carson
1929The Brandenburg ArchFrieda, seine TochterGerman title: Durchs Brandenburger Tor. Solang noch Untern Linden...
1929The Unusual Past of Thea CarterThea CarterGerman title: Die seltsame Vergangenheit der Thea Carter
1930The Lone DefenderDolores Valdez
1931Los PresidiariosWarden's daughterUncredited
1931Pardon UsWarden's daughter
1932Devil on DeckMary Moore
1935Roaring RoadsHerself