Hollywood Icon June Lockhart Dies at 100

With a career spanning nearly nine decades, Lockhart’s extraordinary life bridged the Golden Age of Hollywood and modern television.

The New York–born actress made her stage debut at just eight years old in the 1933 production of Peter Ibbetson and appeared on screen by age 13 in MGM’s A Christmas Carol, alongside her parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart.

By 19, she was a contract player at MGM and starred in classics such as Meet Me in St. Louis, All This and Heaven Too, and Sergeant York.

Her early success carried to Broadway, where she won the first-ever Tony Award for Best Newcomer in 1947 for For Love or Money.

Her historic medallion was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 2008.

Television audiences of the 1950s and ’60s knew her best as the devoted mother on Lassie, later as Maureen Robinson on Lost in Space, and as Dr. Janet Craig on Petticoat Junction.

She earned two Emmy nominations and remains one of the few actresses to hold two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Beyond her film and TV work, Lockhart became an unofficial ambassador for NASA, attending launches and celebrations side by side with astronauts including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

In 2013, NASA honored her with its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal, one of her proudest achievements.

A lifelong advocate for animal rights, Lockhart also supported the Santa Monica Mounted Police Horses and served as a national spokesperson for International Hearing Dog Inc.