June Lockhart, who played the mother in the Lost in Space and Lassie TV families, has died. The actress died of natural causes on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles, a family representative said, Variety reports. Lockhart's screen career spanned nearly eight decades, starting with her appearance alongside her parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, in the 1939 film A Christmas Carol. Among her other films were Meet Me in St. Louis, Sergeant York, and The Yearling. She'd already been onstage at age 8 in a Metropolitan Opera production of Peter Ibbetson, per the New York Times.
Lockhart became a household name when she joined the cast of Lassie as Timmy's mother, Ruth Martin, a role she played from 1958 to 1964 after succeeding Cloris Leachman. In that series, her family was alerted to emergencies by its courageous collie, the Times points out, while in the next one, a robot sounded the alarm. Lockhart starred as Dr. Maureen Robinson, a brilliant biochemist and mother of three, in the CBS science fiction series Lost in Space from 1965 to 1968. That job was her favorite, Lockhart told Closer magazine last year. "It was so campy," she said, "And I truly enjoyed my relationship with my space family."
She appeared in a range of TV shows, with recurring roles on Petticoat Junction and General Hospital, as well as guest spots on Beverly Hills 90210, Happy Days, Full House, Roseanne, and Grey's Anatomy. Lockhart was nominated for two Emmy Awards and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for film and one for television. She won a special Tony Award in 1948 for her Broadway performance in For Love or Money. In a 1994 interview, Lockhart said she was nothing like the characters she portrayed. "I love rock 'n' roll and going to the concerts," she said, per the AP. "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."
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