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Launching her career in cinema, June Lockhart, who passed on aged 100, found her biggest success after shifting largely to the small screen. Having been offered few chances to excel in movies from her debut as a youngster in 1938 until 1947, she excelled on television in numerous beloved series, most notably in Lassie.

Portraying Ruth Martin on Lassie

Taking over from a previous star in 1958, Lockhart remained in the series until 1964. Her role was Ruth Martin, wed to agriculturalist Paul Martin and the adoptive mother of young Timmy Martin, whose dog was the titular star of the series.

In her role as a housewife, Lockhart somehow managed to avoid being totally upstaged by the intelligent dog. She characterized the program as “a fairy tale about people on a farm in which the canine solves all the issues in 22 minutes, in time for the last commercial”. After she departed the series, Lockhart commented: “In six chaste years of playing a rural spouse and parent, I was rarely permitted to peck my co-star on the face.”

Starring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went directly into a second successful series, Lost in Space (1965-68), a partly comedic science fiction series targeted primarily at children and inspired by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and another actor played Maureen and John Robinson, two scientists investigating alien planets. Lockhart had to spend the majority of her time skillfully trying to survive visual effects. As the series continued, the narrative became increasingly less about this space clan and increasingly about the boy and his friendship with a robot, and the cowardly villain Dr Zachary Smith.

Early Career and Family Background

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 Canada-native 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 show business.

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

Hollywood Work

When her parent was given a deal by a film studio, after his acclaim on Broadway, she moved with her family to Hollywood, where Gene made around 300 films. After going to school in Beverly Hills, June started her professional life in films, 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 last one, she is delightful as a New Yorker at a household party, whose dance card is filled spitefully to stop 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 multiple sequels to the extremely successful Lassie Come Home (1943), in which another actress had played the female character who assists the canine to escape to the family. In the subsequent film, Lockhart played the now grown-up character.

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

TV and Stage Work

Although she was offered major 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 answer. 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 further substantial run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a country hotel, where Lockhart is a physician and mother figure. She also featured regularly in TV westerns in the 50s, such as Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide. Her busy workload continued for the next five decades, with a recurring role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many one-off appearances were as herself in a 1988 episode of a comedy series, where the host finds a lost collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the parent of a dining manager.

Later Career and Impact

Her final TV credit came in 2021 as the voice of Alpha Control in an episode of a digital platform’s remake of Lost in Space. In the big screen version featuring well-known 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 future astronauts, and often participated in the agency’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a unpaid spokesperson brought her its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.

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

Private Details

In 1951 she wed John Maloney, a physician and former Navy doctor. In addition to Anne, they had a second daughter, June. That union ended in divorce, as did her subsequent 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