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Launching her career in films, June Lockhart, who passed on aged 100, achieved her greatest success after shifting predominantly to the small screen. Having been given limited opportunities to shine in films from her debut as a child in 1938 until 1947, she excelled on TV in many beloved series, especially in Lassie.

Her Memorable Role in Lassie

Stepping in from another actress in 1958, Lockhart remained in the series until 1964. Her role was Ruth Martin, married to agriculturalist Paul Martin and the adoptive mother of seven-year-old Timmy Martin, whose collie was the titular star of the series.

Despite playing a housewife, Lockhart adeptly avoided being outshone by the brilliant animal star. She described the program as “a fairy tale about people on a rural property in which the canine resolves all the issues in 22 minutes, in time for the last advertisement”. After she departed the series, Lockhart commented: “In six chaste years of playing a country spouse and mother, I was hardly ever allowed to kiss my co-star on the cheek.”

Featuring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went straight into another successful series, Lost in Space (1965-68), a semi-spoof science fiction series aimed primarily at young audiences and inspired by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and another actor portrayed Maureen and John Robinson, two researchers investigating distant planets. Lockhart had to spend most of her time skillfully trying to navigate special effects. As the series progressed, the storyline became less and less about this interstellar clan and increasingly about the young son and his bond with a robot, and the cowardly villain Dr Zachary Smith.

Start in Entertainment

Lockhart’s feature film debut, at the 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 actual parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As British-born Kathleen and Canadian-born Gene were both actors in dozens of films, as well as on stage, it was nearly certain that June, who was born in New York, would enter the entertainment industry.

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

Transition to Hollywood and Movie Roles

When her parent was given a contract by a film studio, after his acclaim on Broadway, she relocated with her family to Hollywood, where Gene made approximately 300 films. After going to school in Beverly Hills, June started her career in films, mainly in minor 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 arranged maliciously to prevent Lockhart interacting with her brother.

More significantly, although she did not realize it at the time, was Son of Lassie (1945). It was one of several sequels to the extremely successful Lassie Come Home (1943), in which a young star had played the female character who helps the dog to return to the family. In the subsequent film, Lockhart played the now grown-up version.

The affectionate way in which she handled both Lassie and her offspring, Laddie, protagonist of a wartime story in enemy-held Norway, was in the consideration of the creators when it came to casting the Lassie TV series 13 years later.

Television and Theater Career

Although she was offered major roles in two thrillers, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart concluded her movie career was stagnating and that TV would be the solution. Before embarking in a different direction, she received praise on Broadway in For Love or Money (1947), a humorous play for which she won a Tony award as most promising newcomer.

A further significant run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a rural hotel, where Lockhart is a physician and mother figure. She also featured frequently in TV westerns in the 50s, such as Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide. Her hectic schedule persisted for the following five decades, with a recurring role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many one-off appearances were as the actress in a 1988 episode of a talkshow, where the presenter finds a lost collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the mother of a restaurant manager.

Final Career and Legacy

Her final TV appearance came in 2021 as the voice of Alpha Control in an episode of a digital platform’s new version of Lost in Space. In the big screen version starring famous actors (1998), she had a digital cameo as a school principal. She took pleasure in learning how much of an inspiration the original series had been to later astronauts, and often participated in the organization’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a volunteer representative brought her its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.

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

Personal Information

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

She is remembered by her children and four grandkids.

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