LOS ANGELES (AP) — June Lockhart, who mothered a generation of television viewers whether at home in “Lassie” or in the stratosphere in “Lost in Space,” has died. She was 100.
Lockhart died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, her 40-year-old friend, said Saturday.
“She was very happy until the very end, reading the New York Times and the LA Times every day,” he said. “It was very important for her to focus on the news of the day.”
The daughter of prolific character actor Gene Lockhart, Lockhart often played inventor roles as a young film actor. Television made her a star.
From 1958 to 1964, she portrayed Ruth Martin, who raised orphaned Timmy (John Provost), on the hit CBS series Lassie. From 1965 to 1968, she traveled aboard the space shuttle Jupiter II as the mother of the Robinson family in the campy CBS adventure film Lost in Space.
Her images of warm, compassionate mothers endeared her to young viewers, and decades later, baby boomers flocked to nostalgia conventions to meet Lockhart and buy autographed photographs of her.
Behind the scenes, Lockhart insisted, she looked nothing like the women she portrayed.
“I have to quote Dan Rather,” she said in a 1994 interview. “I can control my reputation, but not my image, because my image is how you see me.
“I love rock 'n' roll and go to concerts. I've driven army tanks and flown in hot air balloons. And I do gliding – airplanes without engines. I do a lot of things that don't fit my image.”
Early in her career, Lockhart appeared in many films. Among them: “All This and Heaven Too,” “Adam Had Four Sons,” “Sergeant York,” “Miss Annie Rooney,” “Forever and a Day” and “Meet Me in St. Louis.”
She also starred in Son of Lassie, the sequel to 1945's Lassie Come Home, playing the adult version of the role created by Elizabeth Taylor.
New life on television
As her adult film career waned, Lockhart switched to television, appearing in live-action New York City dramas as well as game and talk shows. She was the third actress to play the female lead in Lassie on television, following Jen Clayton and Cloris Leachman. (Provost replaced the show's original child star, Tommy Rettig, in 1957.)
Lockhart spoke candidly about her canine partner. First, as she said in 1989, Lassie was a guy because male collies “are bigger, the ruff is bigger, they look more imposing.”
She added: “I worked with four Lassies. There was only one main Lassie at a time. Then there was a dog who ran, a dog who fought and a dog who was a backup, because only humans can work 14 hours a day without needing sleep.
“Lassie wasn't really friends with anyone. Lassie was completely focused on sneakers.”
After six years in the countryside in Lassie, Lockhart ventured into outer space, taking on the role of Maureen Robinson, the wise and hopeful mother of a family who embarks on a five-year mission to a distant planet in Lost in Space.
After their mission is sabotaged by a fellow traveler, the nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), the group hops from planet to planet, encountering strange creatures and near-disasters that have viewers tuning in next week for the escape. For three years, Mrs. Robinson consoled her and offered her a piece of her “space pie.”
As with Lassie, Lockhart enjoyed working on Lost in Space: “It was like working at Disneyland every day.”
In 1968, Lockhart joined the cast of Petticoat Junction for the final two seasons of the rural comedy, playing Dr. Janet Craig. Original star Bea Benaderet was diagnosed with cancer and died, also in 1968.
A little bit of everything
Lockhart remained active long after Lost in Space, appearing frequently in episodes of television, as well as recurring roles on the daytime soap opera General Hospital and the evening series Knots Landing and Colby. Her film credits include Remake and the animated film Bonji Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm, in which she voiced Mindy the Owl.
She also used her media pass to attend presidential press conferences, provided voiceovers for beauty pageants and holiday parades, appeared in B-movies and toured in the plays “Steel Magnolias,” “Bedroom Farce” and “Once More with Feeling.”
“Her real passion was journalism,” Gregory said. “She loved going to White House briefings.”
Lockhart liked to tell the story of how her parents met, saying they were hired separately for a touring play sponsored by inventor Thomas A. Edison and decided to get married during a stop in Lake Louise, Alberta.
Their daughter was born on June 25, 1925 in New York. The family moved to Hollywood 10 years later, and Gene Lockhart worked steadily as a character actor, usually in good-natured roles, sometimes as a villain. His wife Kathleen often appeared with him.
Young June made her stage debut at the age of 8, dancing in the Metropolitan Opera Children's Ballet. Her first film appearance was a small role in 1938's A Christmas Carol, where she played Bob Cratchit's daughter and his wife, played by her parents.
She was married and divorced twice: to John Maloney, a physician, father of her daughters Ann Kathleen and June Elizabeth; and architect John C. Lindsey.
Throughout her later career, Lockhart was associated in the public consciousness with “Lassie”.
Although she sometimes poked fun at the show, she admitted: “It's wonderful to have one role in your career that you're known for. A lot of actors work their whole lives and never get one role that's really theirs.”
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Bob Thomas, a longtime Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary.
