Happy Birthday, June Lockhart

June Lockhart turns 100 years old today.

Born in New York, her father was a Canadian actor and her mother an English actress. Lockhart began acting as a child, appearing in the classics "Meet Me In St. Louis", "Sergeant York", and "The Yearling". She even has some genre cred, starring as the "She-Wolf Of London" and as a witch in "Troll."

But my childhood is when I came to forever identify Lockhart as Maureen Robinson, the matriarch of the Robinson family in "Lost In Space." Although I was more of a "Star Trek" kid, I still couldn't resist the occasional viewings of CBS's less serious sci-fi adventure series. Lockhart and her co-star Guy Williams could usually add an air of class to any of the show's silly plots.

Around that time I was also a fan of "Lassie", and what kid wasn't? A show that was in perpetual reruns throughout my youth, Lockhart is often referred to as "Lassie's mom", but of course she played Ruth Martin, the mother of Lassie's owner Timmy, who was often trapped "down a well" as the joke goes. And many of you may not remember, but after her stint on Lost In Space she replaced Bea Benaderet for several years on "Petticoat Junction." Suffice to say, Lockhart was all over my childhood.

Her career slowed down a bit in the 1970s, but she still kept up a steady stream of appearances on TV shows and a small film role here and there. She even had a cameo in the 1998 remake of "Lost In Space" as Will Robinson's school principal.

A noted rock and roll fan, her Lost In Space co-stars Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright tell of how Lockhart would take them to concerts at the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood. She also has not one but two stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for television and one for film.

Married and divorced twice, Lockhart's daughter from her first marriage, Anne, would become an actress as well, and played Lieutenant Sheba, a Viper pilot from the Battlestar Pegasus in the classic series "Battlestar Galactica". Anne also played a younger version of her mother's character in the film Troll.

Still in good health, Lockhart retired from acting in 2021. In a 2024 interview, she had this to say: “I don’t spend any time dwelling on things I can’t change. Everything is in flux. Wait a moment and things will work out.”

-- Wyatt Weed
(June 25, 2025)