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June Lockhart, who died at the age of 100, began her professional journey in movies, but gained fame after transitioning almost exclusively to TV. Having been offered limited opportunities to excel in films from her first appearance as a child in 1938 until 1947, she excelled on TV in numerous popular series, most notably in Lassie.

Portraying Ruth Martin on Lassie

Taking over from a previous star in 1958, Lockhart remained in the show until 1964. Her role was Ruth Martin, wed to farmer Paul Martin and the adoptive mother of seven-year-old Timmy Martin, whose collie was the titular hero of the series.

In her part as a homemaker, Lockhart somehow succeeded to avoid being totally upstaged by the intelligent canine. She described the program as “a fairy tale about families on a rural property in which the canine resolves all the problems in 22 minutes, in time for the last advertisement”. After she departed the series, Lockhart commented: “In six chaste years of playing a rural spouse and mother, I was rarely permitted to peck my on-screen husband on the face.”

Starring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went straight into another successful series, Lost in Space (1965-68), a partly comedic science fiction series targeted mostly at young audiences and based by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and her co-star played 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 progressed, the narrative became increasingly less about this interstellar clan and more about the young son and his friendship with a mechanical being, and the cowardly antagonist Dr Zachary Smith.

Beginnings in Show Business

Lockhart’s feature film first role, 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 real-life parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As UK-native Kathleen and Canada-native Gene were both actors in many of films, as well as on theater, it was almost certain that June, who was born in New York, would enter show business.

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

Hollywood Career

When her parent was offered a deal 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 professional life 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 last one, she is delightful as a New Yorker at a family party, whose schedule is filled maliciously to stop Lockhart dancing with her brother.

More importantly, 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 another actress had played the girl who helps the canine to escape to the family. In the later film, Lockhart played the now grown-up character.

The affectionate way in which she handled both Lassie and her offspring, Laddie, hero of a wartime adventure 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 Stage Career

Although she was offered leading roles in two thrillers, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart concluded her movie career was getting her nowhere and that television would be the solution. Before embarking in a different 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 doctor and maternal character. She also featured regularly in TV westerns in the 50s, such as Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide. Her hectic schedule persisted for the next five decades, with a recurring role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many guest appearances were as herself in a 1988 episode of a comedy series, where the presenter finds a stray collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the mother of a dining manager.

Final Career and Legacy

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 big screen version starring famous actors (1998), she had a holographic cameo as a school principal. She took joy in learning how much of an influence the first series had been to future astronauts, and often participated in the organization’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a unpaid spokesperson brought her its prestigious award.

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.

Private Details

In 1951 she married John Maloney, a physician and former Navy medical officer. In addition to Anne, they had another daughter, June. That union ended in separation, 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