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Starting her career in films, June Lockhart, who passed on aged 100, found her greatest success after switching predominantly to the small screen. Having been given few chances to shine in films from her debut as a youngster in 1938 until 1947, she thrived on television in numerous beloved series, most notably in Lassie.

Her Iconic Role in Lassie

Taking over from another actress in 1958, Lockhart continued in the show until 1964. She played Ruth Martin, wed to farmer Paul Martin and the foster mother of seven-year-old Timmy Martin, whose collie was the titular star of the series.

In her role as a housewife, Lockhart somehow succeeded to avoid being totally overshadowed by the clever canine. She described the program as “a fantasy about people on a farm in which the dog solves all the problems in 22 minutes, in time for the last advertisement”. After she left the show, Lockhart remarked: “In six sexless years of playing a country spouse and mother, I was rarely permitted to peck my co-star on the cheek.”

Featuring in Lost in Space

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

Start in Entertainment

Lockhart’s movie first role, at the young age of 13, had come as Belinda Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1938). In the parts of her mother and father, Bob and Mrs Cratchit, were her actual parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As UK-native Kathleen and Canadian-born Gene were both actors in many of films, as well as on stage, it was almost certain that June, who was born in New York, would enter show business.

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

Transition to Hollywood and Film Roles

When her father was given a contract by a motion picture studio, after his acclaim on Broadway, she relocated with her family to Hollywood, where Gene made around 300 films. After going to school in Beverly Hills, June started her career in movies, mostly 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 household party, whose schedule is arranged spitefully to stop Lockhart dancing 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 hugely successful Lassie Come Home (1943), in which a young star had played the female character who assists the canine to return to the family. In the later film, Lockhart played the now grown-up version.

The affectionate way in which she interacted with both Lassie and her son, Laddie, protagonist of a World War II adventure in enemy-held Norway, was in the consideration of the creators when it came to casting the Lassie TV series 13 years later.

TV and Theater Work

Although she was given leading roles in two thrillers, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart concluded her film 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 mother figure. She also appeared regularly in TV westerns in the 50s, such as Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide. Her hectic workload continued for the following five decades, with a regular role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many guest appearances were as the actress in a 1988 episode of a talkshow, where the host finds a lost collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the parent of a restaurant manager.

Later Career and Impact

Her last TV appearance came in 2021 as the voice 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 first series had been to future astronauts, and often attended the agency’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a volunteer representative brought her its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.

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

Personal Details

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

She is survived by her daughters and four grandchildren.

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