🔗 Share this article

June Lockhart, who passed away at the remarkable age of 100, started her career in movies, but gained recognition after transitioning almost entirely to television. Having been given few opportunities to shine in movies from her debut as a youngster in 1938 until 1947, she thrived on TV in many beloved series, especially in Lassie.

Becoming Ruth Martin on Lassie

Taking over from another actress in 1958, Lockhart remained in the show until 1964. She played Ruth Martin, wed to agriculturalist Paul Martin and the foster mother of seven-year-old Timmy Martin, whose dog was the eponymous hero of the series.

Despite playing a mother figure, Lockhart adeptly avoided being outshone by the smart animal star. She described the program as “a fairy tale about people on a rural property in which the canine solves all the problems in 22 minutes, in time for the last commercial”. After she left the show, Lockhart commented: “In six chaste years of playing a country wife and mother, I was hardly ever permitted to peck my co-star on the cheek.”

Featuring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went straight into a second successful series, Lost in Space (1965-68), a semi-spoof science fiction series aimed mostly at young audiences and based by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and her co-star played Maureen and John Robinson, two scientists exploring alien planets. Lockhart had to spend the majority of her time skillfully trying to survive special effects. As the show continued, the narrative became less and less about this space clan and increasingly about the boy and his friendship with a robot, and the cowardly antagonist 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 actual parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As UK-native Kathleen and Canadian-born Gene were both actors in many of movies, as well as on stage, it was almost inevitable that June, who was born in New York, would join the entertainment industry.

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).

Hollywood Career

When her father was offered a contract by a film studio, after his success on Broadway, she relocated with her family to Hollywood, where Gene made approximately 300 films. After attending school in Beverly Hills, June began her professional life in movies, mostly in small 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 charming as a New Yorker at a family party, whose schedule is filled spitefully to stop 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 female character who assists the dog to escape to the owners. In the later film, Lockhart played the now adult character.

The affectionate way in which she handled both Lassie and her son, Laddie, hero of a wartime adventure in Nazi-occupied Norway, was in the minds of the producers when it came to selecting the Lassie TV series 13 years later.

TV and Stage Work

Although she was given leading roles in two suspense films, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart concluded her movie career was stagnating and that TV would be the solution. Before embarking in a new 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 additional significant run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a country hotel, where Lockhart is a physician and maternal character. She also featured 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 guest appearances were as the actress in a 1988 episode of a talkshow, where the presenter finds a lost collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the parent of a dining manager.

Final Career and Impact

Her last TV appearance came in 2021 as the voice of Alpha Control in an episode of a streaming service’s remake of Lost in Space. In the big screen version featuring famous actors (1998), she had a digital cameo as a school principal. She took joy 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 prestigious award.

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

Personal Life and Family

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

She is remembered by her daughters and four grandchildren.

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