Ms. Lockhart, who spent most of her life on stage and screen, was one of Hollywood’s “very favorite moms,” said actor Bill Mumy.
June Lockhart, the actress who played the kind-hearted mother Ruth Martin on CBS’s “Nameless Dogs” and the space mother Maureen Robinson on CBS’ “Lost in Space,” has died at the age of 100, her family announced.
Lockhart died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., on Oct. 23, surrounded by his daughter June Elizabeth and granddaughter Christiana, according to a statement from his agent Harlan Boll to USA TODAY.
Lockhart became one of the most recognizable faces on American television in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, known for her gentle voice and unwavering warmth as the devoted mother on “Lassie,” before embracing her future as the Robinson family patriarch on “Lost in Space.” She also played Dr. Janet Craig in “Petticoat Junction.”
June Lockhart, a legacy from the stage to the big and small screen
Born in New York on June 25, 1925, Lockhart began her acting career in the 1933 production of Peter Ibbetson at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She will continue to appear in movies and TV series. At the age of 13, she appeared in the 1938 production of A Christmas Carol, playing the daughter of her parents Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, and appearing as the Cratchits family.
Other early roles include the films All This and Heaven Too, Sergeant York, The Yearling, See You in St. Louis, and The She-Wolf of London.
Lockhart was “one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age,” People magazine declared upon her death.
On stage, Lockhart made his Broadway debut in 1947’s “For Love or Money,” for which he won the Best Newcomer Tony Award.
After appearing in “Lassie” and “Lost in Space,” Lockhart continued to appear in television series, with recurring roles on “Petticoat Junction,” “General Hospital,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.” She also lent her voice to Nickelodeon’s “The Ren & Stimpy Show,” playing a gentle mother in the 1993 episode “Stimpy’s Son,” a humorous nod to her iconic TV mom legacy.
She considered “Lost in Space” to be her favorite TV role. “It was very creepy,” she told Closer magazine in 2024. “And I really enjoyed my relationship with my space family.”
Fellow actor Bill Mumy, who played her son in the series, paid tribute to Lockhart in a Facebook post after her death, calling her “a unique, talented, nurturing, adventurous and uncompromising woman. She did it her way. June will always be one of my favorite mothers.”
In memory, the family suggests donations to The Actors Fund, ProPublica, or International Hearing Dogs, Inc.
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, and email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
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