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October 26, 2025 — 8.15am
Los Angeles: June Lockhart, who became a mother figure for a generation of television viewers whether at home in Lassie or up in the stratosphere in Lost in Space has died. She was 100.
Lockhart died on Friday AEDT of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, a friend of 40 years, said on Saturday.
Best known for her role in Lassie, Lockhart spoke frankly about her canine co-star: “I worked with four Lassies. There was only one main Lassie at a time. Then there was a dog that did the running, a dog that did the fighting, and a dog that was a stand-in, because only humans can work 14 hours a day without needing a nap.
June Lockhart, right, who played the mother in Lassie.Credit: AP
“Lassie was not especially friendly with anybody. Lassie was wholly concentrated on the trainers.”
The daughter of prolific character actor Gene Lockhart, Lockhart was cast frequently in ingenue roles as a young film actor. Television made her a star.
Actress June Lockhart from Lost in Space and Lassie, addresses bloggers at NASA Social media event in 2012.Credit: AP
From 1958 to 1964, she portrayed Ruth Martin, who raised the orphaned Timmy (Jon Provost), in the popular CBS series Lassie. From 1965 to 1968, she travelled aboard the spaceship Jupiter II as mother to the Robinson family in the campy CBS adventure Lost in Space.
Her portrayals of warm, compassionate mothers endeared her to young viewers, and decades later baby boomers flocked to nostalgia conventions to meet Lockhart and buy her autographed photos.
Offscreen, Lockhart insisted, she was nothing like the women she portrayed.
“I must 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 going to the concerts. I have driven Army tanks and flown in hot air balloons. And I go plane-gliding — the ones with no motors. I do a lot of things that don’t go with my image.”
Early in her career, Lockhart appeared in numerous 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 made Son of Lassie, the 1945 sequel to Lassie, Come Home, playing the grown-up version of the role created by Elizabeth Taylor.
New life on television
When her movie career as an adult faltered, Lockhart shifted to television, appearing in live drama from New York and game and talk shows. She was the third actor to play the female lead in Lassie on TV, following Jan Clayton and Cloris Leachman. (Provost had replaced the show’s original child star, Tommy Rettig, in 1957.)
After six years in the rural setting of Lassie, Lockhart moved to outer space, embarking on the role of Maureen Robinson, the wise, reassuring mother of a family that departs on a five-year flight to a faraway planet in Lost in Space.
The cast of Lost in Space.Credit: AP
After their mission is sabotaged by a fellow passenger, the nefarious Dr Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), the party bounces from planet to planet, encountering weird creatures and near-disasters that required viewers to tune in the following week to learn of the escape. Throughout the three-year run, Mrs. Robinson offered consolation and a slice of her “space pie.”
Lockhart enjoyed working on Lost in Space: “It was like going to work at Disneyland every day.”
“So smart, quick, and funny — she filled her 100 years with curiosity, laughter, and rock ‘n’ roll,” Angela Cartwright, who played her daughter on Lost in Space posted on Facebook. “I can only imagine she’s feeling right at home as she steps off this planet and into the stars.”
Bill Mumy, who played her son in the film, posted on social media: “A one of a kind, talented, nurturing, adventurous, and non compromising Lady. She did it her way. June will always be one of my very favourite mums.”
A little bit of everything
Lockhart remained active long after Lost in Space, appearing often in episodic television as well as in recurring roles in the daytime soap opera General Hospital and nighttime soaps, Knots Landing and The Colbys.
“Her true passion was journalism,” Gregory said. “She loved going to the White House briefing rooms.”
“She was very happy up until the very end, reading the New York Times and LA Times every day,” he said. “It was very important to her to stay focused on the news of the day.”
Lockhart liked to tell the story of how her parents met, saying they were hired separately for a touring production sponsored by inventor Thomas A. Edison and decided on marriage during a stop at Lake Louise, Alberta.
Lost in Space was an all-time classic in many homes.
Their daughter was born June 25, 1925, in New York City. The family moved to Hollywood 10 years later, and Gene Lockhart worked steadily as a character actor, usually in avuncular roles, sometimes as a villain. His wife, Kathleen, often appeared with him.
Young June made her stage debut at 8, dancing in a children’s ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House. Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1938 A Christmas Carol, playing the daughter of Bob Cratchit and his wife, who were played by her parents.
She was married and divorced twice: to John Maloney, a physician, father of her daughters Anne Kathleen and June Elizabeth; and architect John C. Lindsay.
Throughout her later career, Lockhart was connected in the public mind with Lassie.
Even though she sometimes mocked the show, she conceded: “How wonderful that in a career there is one role for which you are known. Many actors work all their lives and never have one part that is really theirs.
AP
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