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Starting her career in films, June Lockhart, who died aged 100, achieved her biggest success after shifting predominantly to television. Having been given limited opportunities to shine in movies from her first appearance as a child in 1938 until 1947, she excelled on television in many popular series, especially in Lassie.

Becoming Ruth Martin on Lassie

Stepping in from another actress in 1958, Lockhart remained in the show until 1964. Her role was Ruth Martin, married to agriculturalist Paul Martin and the foster mother of young Timmy Martin, whose dog was the titular hero of the series.

Despite playing a mother figure, Lockhart skillfully avoided being outshone by the brilliant animal star. She described the show as “a fairy tale about families on a farm in which the canine solves all the issues in 22 minutes, in time for the last advertisement”. After she left the show, Lockhart remarked: “In six chaste years of playing a country wife and parent, I was rarely permitted to kiss my co-star on the face.”

Starring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went straight into another hit, Lost in Space (1965-68), a semi-spoof science fiction series aimed primarily at young audiences and based by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and her co-star portrayed Maureen and John Robinson, two researchers exploring alien planets. Lockhart had to spend the majority of her time skillfully trying to navigate visual effects. As the show continued, the storyline became less and less about this interstellar family and more about the young son and his bond with a robot, and the cowardly villain Dr Zachary Smith.

Start 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 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 stage, it was almost certain that June, who was born in New York, would join the entertainment industry.

Her first stage performance, at the 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 offered a deal by a film 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 began her professional life in movies, mainly 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 charming as a New Yorker at a family party, whose dance card is filled spitefully to prevent Lockhart dancing with her sibling.

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 assists the canine to escape to the owners. In the later film, Lockhart played the now grown-up version.

The loving way in which she handled both Lassie and her offspring, Laddie, protagonist of a World War II story in Nazi-occupied Norway, was in the minds of the creators when it came to casting the Lassie TV series 13 years later.

Transition to Television and Stage Achievement

Although she was given major 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 TV would be the answer. Before going in a new direction, she received praise on Broadway in For Love or Money (1947), a comedy for which she won a Tony award as best newcomer.

A additional substantial run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a rural hotel, where Lockhart is a physician 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 schedule persisted for the following five decades, with a regular role in General Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Among her many guest appearances were as herself in a 1988 episode of a talkshow, where the host finds a stray collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the mother of a dining manager.

Final Career and Impact

Her final TV appearance came in 2021 as the narration of Alpha Control in an episode of a digital platform’s new version of Lost in Space. In the big screen version starring famous actors (1998), she had a digital cameo as a school principal. She took pleasure in learning how much of an influence 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 volunteer spokesperson brought her its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal.

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

Personal Details

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

She is survived by her daughters and four grandchildren.

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