🔗 Share this article

Starting her career in films, June Lockhart, who passed on aged 100, achieved her greatest success after switching largely to the small screen. Having been given limited opportunities to excel in movies from her debut as a child in 1938 until 1947, she thrived on TV in numerous popular series, especially in Lassie.

Her Memorable Role in Lassie

Taking over from a previous star in 1958, Lockhart remained in the series until 1964. Her role was Ruth Martin, married to farmer Paul Martin and the foster mother of young Timmy Martin, whose collie was the eponymous hero of the series.

Even with playing a mother figure, Lockhart adeptly avoided being outshone by the smart dog. She characterized the program as “a fairy tale about people on a rural property in which the canine resolves all the problems in 22 minutes, in time for the last commercial”. After she departed the show, Lockhart commented: “In six sexless years of playing a country wife and parent, I was rarely allowed to peck my co-star on the face.”

Featuring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went straight into another hit, Lost in Space (1965-68), a semi-spoof sci-fi series targeted primarily at children and inspired by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and her co-star portrayed Maureen and John Robinson, two researchers investigating alien planets. Lockhart had to spend the majority of her time skillfully trying to survive visual effects. As the show progressed, the narrative became less and less about this space clan and increasingly about the boy and his friendship with a robot, and the timid villain Dr Zachary Smith.

Beginnings in Show Business

Lockhart’s movie first role, at the young age of 13, had come as Belinda Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1938). In the roles of her parents, Bob and Mrs Cratchit, were her real-life parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As British-born Kathleen and Canada-native Gene were both performers in dozens of films, as well as on stage, it was nearly inevitable that June, who was born in New York, would enter show business.

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

Cinema Work

When her father was offered a deal by a motion picture studio, after his success on Broadway, she moved with her parents to Hollywood, where Gene made approximately 300 films. After attending school in Beverly Hills, June started her career in movies, mostly in minor roles in prestigious 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 filled spitefully to prevent Lockhart dancing with her sibling.

More significantly, although she did not know 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 girl who assists the dog to escape to the family. In the later film, Lockhart played the now grown-up version.

The loving way in which she handled both Lassie and her offspring, Laddie, hero of a World War II 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 given major roles in two suspense films, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart decided her movie career was getting her nowhere and that television would be the solution. Before going in a new direction, she won 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 substantial run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a country hotel, where Lockhart is a physician and mother figure. She also appeared frequently in TV cowboy shows 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 regular role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many one-off appearances were as the actress in a 1988 episode of a comedy series, where the presenter finds a stray collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the parent of a restaurant manager.

Final Career and Impact

Her final TV appearance came in 2021 as the narration of Alpha Control in an episode of a streaming service’s remake of Lost in Space. In the movie version starring famous actors (1998), she had a holographic cameo as a school principal. She took joy in learning how much of an inspiration the original series had been to later astronauts, and often attended the organization’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a unpaid spokesperson brought her its prestigious award.

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

Personal Life and Family

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

She is remembered by her children and four grandchildren.

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