Happy 100th, June Lockhart! Inside the Secrets of Her ‘Lassie’ Contract & Other Amazing Stories
Born into a theatrical family in 1925, it’s no surprise that June Lockhart took to acting. She made her professional debut at just 8 in a pantomime scene in a Metropolitan Opera production, and after graduating from the exclusive Westlake School for Girls in Hollywood, she appeared in The White Cliffs of Dover, Meet Me in St. Louis and other movies.
But her career really took off when she starred opposite John Loder in F. Hugh Herbert’s Broadway play For Love or Money for almost a year. Her performance got her noticed by two publicists — Richard Maney and Frank Goodman — and they decided to launch a mammoth “star is born” campaign for her. It worked and the rest is history, as she went on to star in Lassie, Lost in Space, Petticoat Junction and so much more.
Here we look at some little-known stories behind Lockhart’s nearly 90 years in the business — many told by her in old TV Guide Magazine interviews — as she turns 100 on June 25, 2025.
1 Lassie’s mom was banned from endorsing booze or playing “a sophisticated woman of the world”
Credit: John R. Hamilton / TV Guide / Everett Collection
Lockhart’s contract for Lassie didn’t just outline her pay and work schedule — it also included a long list of behaviors that she was banned from engaging in as long as she was playing little Timmy’s mom. “My contract stated specifically that I was to conduct myself in a way consistent with the general character of a young American housewife living on a small farm,” she shared in a 1965 interview. “I was forbidden to endorse alcoholic beverages, deodorants, laxatives, depilatories [creams, lotions, gels] and feminine hygienics. Nor could I play a sophisticated woman of the world who, by prevailing mores of our society, could be considered immoral or undesirable.”
2 She once paid a $1,145 bill … in one dollar bills
When June discovered she had let her publicity firm’s bill slip and that she owed them $1,145, she thought of a unique way to impress upon them the fact that this was a lot of money. She went to the bank and asked for 1,145 $1 bills. According to journalist Dan Jenkins, who penned a piece for TV Guide Magazine, this took a little time — mostly for the bank clerks to absorb the idea, all the while thinking she was a little crazed. “She got back into her 1901 car and chugged her way up to the press agent’s office and dumped the 1,145 $1 bills on his desk.”
3 One job required her to read eight newspapers a day
Everett Collection
One of June’s earliest TV jobs was as a panelist on NBC’s old news quiz show Who Said That? June shared: “Being around those real newsmen on the panel and being forced to read eight newspapers a day for three years to keep up with them, I developed a real feeling and respect for journalism.”
4 She owned a 1923 fire engine that she drove regularly
Complete with power steering! June loved whipping around in that fire engine with hubby John Lindsay.
5 Her “welcome home” lamp was always a hit
June Lockhart and John Lindsay with daughters Anne and Lizabeth in 1967. Credit: Everett Collection
According to Jenkins, June and her then-architect husband John Lindsay (they divorced in 1970) had a “welcome lamp” in their study; when turned on, the lamp would revolve like a lighthouse, sending out four different-colored beams.
“Whoever gets home first turns it on to welcome the other one. Well, one day a couple of weeks ago Lindsay flew to San Francisco and June went out to the Los Angeles International Airport to meet him when he got back,” Jenkins wrote. “She grabbed the welcome lamp, stuffed her coat pockets with every extension cord she could find in the house and took off. I understand that it is not every day that an airline is asked to accommodate a female like this, but you don’t actually accommodate this particular female. You sort of go along with her like it was the most logical thing in the world for a girl to hold a welcome lamp over her head at an airport ramp, with 50 feet of extension cord running all over the place and incoming pilots thinking they are seeing things. Which they are. So, Lindsay got off the plane, spotted this female Diogenes standing there, turned to two friends with him and said in an I-am-a-hapless-husband voice, ‘Well, fellows, that is my wife.’”
6 June learned the craft of acting from her father, Gene Lockhart
June Lockhart (center) with her parents, Kathleen and Gene Lockhart. Credit: Everett Collection
June never had a dramatic lesson except for typed notes from her father. “I have my own method,” she once told TV Guide Magazine. “I learn my lines and say them.”
7 Before Hollywood called, she planned to be a nurse
While she had a crush on her childhood family doctor growing up, the lure of show business eventually intervened. It didn’t, however, stop her from diagnosing others, especially when she took on the role of the glamorous Dr. Janet Craig on Petticoat Junction. “I read all the magazines, and diagnose illnesses and even prescribe for my friends,” she once said. “Of course, I then refer them to other doctors.”
8 June initially rejected the part of the mother in Lassie … until fate stepped in
TV Guide Magazine
Lockhart, who had already turned down the role once, was driving in Beverly Hills when Bob Golden, the producer of Lassie, pulled up alongside of her and said, “I wish you’d do that mother for me!” June told him she’d take the role for maybe a year, and he yelled back that wouldn’t be long enough. June went home, pondered that, and ultimately changed her mind.
“I always regarded the business as a lovely hobby and a way to make money,” she said. “The Lassie series, I said to myself, offered dignity, prestige, steady work and good pay. What more could someone like me ask? I had my agent call Bob, and we made the deal.”
9 She wasn’t afraid to wear the same outfit twice (or for 12 years)!
While attending a dinner party in the 1960s, she admired a chiffon gown made in Paris and worn by a local society matron. “She was a lovely lady who embraced the theory that when a woman is successful in a dress, she should never wear it again,” June told a TV Guide Magazine reporter. “My theory is just the opposite. If I’m successful in a dress, I wear it until it drops. I’ve worn some dresses 12 years. Well, I asked this lady if she would like to sell me her chiffon gown — not on the spot, mind you, but say, the next day. She agreed. And I bought a $1,495 dress for 600 bucks.”
10 Being remembered as TV’s “damn good mother”
When asked in 1969 how she thought she would be assessed in retrospect, Lockhart said: “Apparently, whatever my image is to the television viewer, I guess I’m a highly salable commodity.” Smiling, she continued: “They’ll probably say, ‘She did damn good mother parts.’”
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