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LOCKHART, JUNE (1925– ). American actress.
Provided voice for animation: These Are the Days (tv
series) (1974); "How to Found a Pound" (1986), episode of Pound Puppies;
"Strangers in the Night," "Wildfire: King of the Horses" (1986), episodes of Wildfire;
"Blazing Entrails/ Lumber Jerks" (1994), "A Scooter for Yaksmas" (1995),
episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show; "America the Beautiful" (1995),
episode of Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man; "All the Duke's Men"
(1995), episode of The Critic; "The Man Who Cried `Clown,'/Johnny, Real
Good/Little Talky Tabitha!" (1997), episode of Johnny Bravo.
She was the daughter of actors Gene Lockhart and Kathleen
Lockhart, who set a pattern for their child by working incessantly until the
father's death in 1957, and she made her uncredited debut as the daughter of
their Mr. and Mrs. Crachit in the 1938 film version of A Christmas Carol.
Appearing in several films during the 1940s, she stood out in She-Wolf of
London as the demure young girl who couldn't possibly be a werewolf (and
wasn't), though her first true fame came from appearances on Broadway. In the
1950s, her variegated career as a television guest star, including visits to Science
Fiction Theatre and Shirley Temple Theatre, came to a temporary halt
in 1958, when she was cast as Timmy's mother in Lassie (1958-1964), the
series that forever defined her as a mother. Finally rescued from the
confinements of rural domesticity in 1964, when a format change gave Lassie a
new forest ranger master, Lockhart was evidently eager for new experiences, and
while playing an overbearing mother in an episode of Bewitched offered
no new challenges, she had more fun assisting Robert
VAUGHN's Napoleon Solo on one
mission in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and struggling to deal with a
deranged husband while taking a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Soon,
though, an offer she could not refuse would require her to again play a mother,
but Lost in Space would at least offer the opportunity for some
stimulating changes of scenery.
Lockhart's role in Irwin
ALLEN's usually-ridiculous
series is not properly appreciated; true, in most episodes, she appears only
briefly at the family's current base camp, fretting about the whereabouts of
her adventurous son, Billy MUMY,
and his constant companions, the amiable Robot and Jonathan HARRIS's
duplicitous Mr. Smith; but she had her moments. Thus, let the record show that
Lockhart qualifies as America's first female spacewalker, since she bravely
donned a spacesuit in one episode to venture into the cosmos to successfully
rescue her husband. For the first time, perhaps, audiences could see that this
woman might be made of sterner stuff than her scripts usually indicated.
However, Lockhart soon came down to Earth when Lost in Space ended, and
she was immediately summoned to replace the late Bea Benaderet as the motherly
centerpiece of Petticoat Junction (1968-1970), also venturing into the
other profession which would recur throughout her later career by playing a
nurturing doctor.
For the last forty years, Lockhart has primarily worked as a
supporting actress in television episodes and occasional films; the highlights
include a welcome cameo in the 1950s homage Strange Invaders, two
appearances in The Greatest American Hero as the mother of series
regular Connie Sellecca, a pitch-perfect Mrs. Santa Claus in The Night They
Saved Christmas, a friendly witch in Troll, another cameo in the
1998 film version of Lost in Space, and a role in Babylon 5 as an
apparently fraudulent physician who, of course, turns out to be a genuine
healer. She has also maintained high standards, qualifying as one of the few
roving television stars of her era who never, ever paid a visit to either The
Love Boat or Fantasy Island, and she also seems to have abandoned
another disreputable arena for actors in search of employment, providing voices
for animated films. Today, her already-written obituaries surely emphasize Lassie
and Lost in Space, but she remains hard at work and might yet score
another hit that will require some revisions. For June Lockhart has always been,
quite definitely, tougher than she looks.
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