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Launching her career in cinema, June Lockhart, who passed on aged 100, found her greatest success after shifting largely to the small screen. Having been given limited opportunities to shine in films from her first appearance as a youngster in 1938 until 1947, she excelled on television in many beloved series, especially in Lassie.

Portraying Ruth Martin on Lassie

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

Despite playing a housewife, Lockhart skillfully avoided being overshadowed by the brilliant animal star. She characterized the show as “a fantasy about families 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 wife and mother, I was rarely allowed to peck my on-screen husband on the cheek.”

Starring in Lost in Space

Lockhart went directly into another successful series, Lost in Space (1965-68), a semi-spoof sci-fi series aimed mostly at children and inspired by The Swiss Family Robinson. Lockhart and her co-star played Maureen and John Robinson, two scientists exploring distant planets. Lockhart had to spend the majority of her time deftly trying to navigate special effects. As the series continued, the storyline became increasingly less about this interstellar family and increasingly about the young son and his bond with a mechanical being, and the cowardly villain Dr Zachary Smith.

Beginnings in Entertainment

Lockhart’s movie first role, at the age of 13, had come as Belinda Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1938). In the parts of her parents, Bob and Mrs Cratchit, were her actual parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart. As British-born Kathleen and Canada-native Gene were both actors in many 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-singing role in an musical production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1931).

Transition to Hollywood and Film Roles

When her parent was given a contract by a film studio, after his acclaim on Broadway, she moved with her parents to Hollywood, where Gene made approximately 300 films. After going to school in Beverly Hills, June started her professional life in films, mostly 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 latter, she is charming as a New Yorker at a family party, whose schedule is filled maliciously to stop Lockhart interacting with her sibling.

More significantly, although she did not realize it at the time, was Son of Lassie (1945). It was one of multiple sequels to the hugely successful Lassie Come Home (1943), in which a young star had played the female character who assists the canine to escape to the family. In the subsequent film, Lockhart played the now adult version.

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

Television and Stage Career

Although she was given major roles in two thrillers, She-Wolf of London (1946) and Bury Me Dead (1947), Lockhart concluded her film career was getting her nowhere and that TV would be the solution. Before going 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 further significant run came with Petticoat Junction (1968-70), set in a rural hotel, where Lockhart is a physician and mother figure. She also appeared frequently in TV cowboy shows in the 50s, such as Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide. Her busy 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 the actress in a 1988 episode of a talkshow, where the host finds a lost collie, and in another sitcom in 1995 as the parent of a dining manager.

Later Roles and Achievements

Her final TV appearance came in 2021 as the narration 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 influence the first series had been to later astronauts, and often attended the agency’s launches and other events. In 2013 her work as a volunteer representative brought her its prestigious award.

Among her limited 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 Details

In 1951 she wed John Maloney, a physician and former Navy medical officer. 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 children and four grandkids.

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