Barbara Billingsley
Encyclopedia
Barbara Billingsley was an American film, television, voice and stage actress. She gained prominence in the 1950s movie The Careless Years, acting opposite Natalie Trundy
, followed by her best–known role, that of June Cleaver
on the television series Leave It to Beaver
(1957–1963) and its sequel Still the Beaver
(1985–1988, retitled in season two as The New Leave It to Beaver).
, in 1915, the youngest child of Anglo–American parents: patrolman Robert Collyer Combes (1891–1950) and his first wife, the former Lillian Agnes McLaughlin. She had one elder sibling, Elizabeth (1911–1992). Her parents divorced sometime before her fourth birthday, and her father, who later became an assistant chief of police, remarried. After her divorce, Lillian Combes went to work as a forelady at a knitting mill.
Billingsley fell in love with drama in the second grade, and during her years at George Washington High School in Los Angeles
(now Washington Preparatory High School
), she performed in all the school plays. She was voted "Class Queen", and graduated from George Washington in 1934.
She used the name Barbara Combes until 1941. After 1941 when she married her first husband, Glenn Billingsley, she used Barbara Billingsley.
for one year, Billingsley traveled to Broadway, when Straw Hat, a revue in which she was appearing, attracted enough attention to send it to New York. When, after five days, the show closed, she took an apartment on 57th Street and went to work as a $60–a–week fashion model. She also landed a contract with MGM Studios in 1945.
She usually had uncredited roles in major motion picture productions in the 1940s. These roles continued into the first half of the 1950s with The Bad and the Beautiful
, Three Guys Named Mike
, opposite Jane Wyman
, as well as the sci-fi story Invaders from Mars
(1953). Her film experience led to roles on the sitcom
s Professional Father
(with Stephen Dunne and Beverly Washburn
) and The Brothers
(with Gale Gordon
and Bob Sweeney
) as well as an appearance with David Niven
on his anthology series Four Star Playhouse
. In 1957, she guest starred in the episode "That Magazine" of the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve
, starring Howard Duff
and Ida Lupino
. She co–starred opposite Dean Stockwell
and Natalie Trundy
in The Careless Years
, which was her first and only major role in film.
In 1952 Billingsley had her first guest–starring role on an episode of The Abbott and Costello Show
. The part led to other roles on The Lone Wolf, two episodes of City Detective
, The Pride of the Family
, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
, Letter to Loretta, General Electric Summer Originals, You Are There, Cavalcade of America
, Panic!
, Mr. Adams and Eve
, The Love Boat
, Silver Spoons
, Parker Lewis Can't Lose
, Mike Hammer
, Empty Nest, among many others. She reprised her June Cleaver
role three times, in Amazing Stories
, Baby Boom
and Roseanne. She also guest-starred on an episode of Make Room For Daddy, in which Thomas's character is a widower. The producers reportedly considered casting her as his second wife, but later decided against it, and Marjorie Lord
eventually got the role.
in 1957, she made her mark on TV as everyday mother June Cleaver
on Leave It to Beaver
, alongside other 1950s family sitcoms such as Father Knows Best
, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
, Make Room For Daddy and The Donna Reed Show
. It debuted on CBS in 1957, to mediocre ratings and was soon cancelled. However, the show moved to ABC
the following year and stayed there for the next five seasons. The show was featured in over 100 countries. Also starring on Beaver were Hugh Beaumont, in the role of Ward Cleaver
, June's husband and the kids' father, as well as child actor
s Tony Dow
in the role of Wally Cleaver
and Jerry Mathers
as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver.
In the show Billingsley often could be seen doing household chores wearing pearls and earrings. The pearls, which in real-life were Billingsley's trademark, were in turn her idea to have her alter ego wear on television. The actress had what she termed "a hollow" on her neck and thought that wearing a strand of white pearls would lighten it up for the cameras. In later seasons, she started wearing high heels to compensate for the fact that the actors who played her sons were growing up and getting taller than she was. So associated was the pearl necklace with the character, that an entire episode of the sequel series dealt with the necklace when lost. Billingsley had one regret about the show's lasting success: residual payments
ended after six reruns in standard 1950s actors' contracts.
"She was the ideal mother," Billingsley said of her character in 1997 in TV Guide
. "Some people think she was weakish, but I don't. She was the love in that family. She set a good example for what a wife could be. I had two boys at home when I did the show. I think the character became kind of like me and vice versa. I've never known where one started and where one stopped." As for the idealized TV family on "Leave It to Beaver," which continues in reruns on cable more than half a century after its debut, Billingsley had her own explanation for the Cleavers' enduring appeal. "Good grief," she told TV Guide
, "I think everybody would like a family like that. Wouldn't it be nice if you came home from school and there was Mom standing there with her little apron and cookies waiting?" Billingsley, however, did question her character's reactions to the Cleaver children's misbehavior, basing her concern on personal experience as the mother of two sons. As co-producer Joseph Connelly explained, "In scenes where she's mad at the boys, she's always coming over to us with the script and objecting. 'I don't see why June is so mad over what Beaver's done. I certainly wouldn't be.' As a result, many of Beaver's crimes have been rewritten into something really heinous like lying about them, in order to give his mother a strong motive for blowing her lady-like stack."
After six seasons and 234 episodes, the popular series was canceled due to the cast's desire to move on to other projects, especially Mathers, who retired from acting to enter his freshman year in high school. The younger actor considered Billingsley a mentor, second mother and a close professional friend:
After the show's cancellation, Mathers remained her close friend for over 45 years. They were reunited on The New Leave It to Beaver
. Billingsley, Mathers, Dow, Frank Bank
and Ken Osmond
also celebrated the show's 50th anniversary together.
as saccharine sweet and had trouble obtaining acting jobs for years. She traveled extensively abroad until the late 1970s. After an absence of 17 years from the public eye (other than appearing in two episodes of The F.B.I. in 1971), Billingsley spoofed her wholesome image with a brief appearance in the comedy Airplane!
(1980), as a passenger who could "speak jive
". She became the voice of Nanny and The Little Train on Muppet Babies
from 1984 to 1991.
Billingsley appeared with Robin Williams
and Pam Dawber
in a 1982 episode of Mork & Mindy. She appeared in a Leave It to Beaver reunion television movie entitled Still the Beaver in 1983. Hugh Beaumont had died the year before of a heart attack, so she played his widow
. She also appeared in the subsequent revival of the series, The New Leave It to Beaver
(1985–1989). In the 1997 film
version of Leave It to Beaver
, Billingsley played the character "Aunt Martha". In 1995, she appeared with other "TV Moms" on Roseanne. In 1998, she appeared on Candid Camera
, along with June Lockhart
and Isabel Sanford
, as audience members in a spoof seminar on motherhood.
On October 4, 2007, she and her surviving castmates, Jerry Mathers
, Tony Dow
, Ken Osmond
and Frank Bank
, were reunited on ABC
's Good Morning America
, to celebrate Leave It to Beavers 50th anniversary. According to interviewer Tom Bergeron
, both of Billingsley's co-stars, Mathers and Osmond, currently get financial advice from another co-star, Bank.
On May 6, 2008, hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
, she was unable to attend the Academy Leonard Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, California, where the Academy of Television Arts & Science presented "A Salute to TV Moms."
at her home in Santa Monica, California
on October 16, 2010, at the age of 94. She is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery
in Santa Monica, California.
Natalie Trundy
Natalie Trundy is an American actress, and the widow of movie producer Arthur P. Jacobs.She made a sizeable contribution to the Planet of the Apes movie series during the 1970s. She appeared as the telepathic mutant Albina in the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, as Dr...
, followed by her best–known role, that of June Cleaver
June Cleaver
June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is a principal character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. June and her husband, Ward, are often invoked as the archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s. The couple are the parents of two sons, Wally and "Beaver"...
on the television series Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
(1957–1963) and its sequel Still the Beaver
The New Leave It to Beaver
The New Leave It to Beaver is an American sitcom sequel to the 1950s and '60s series, Leave It to Beaver. The New Leave It to Beaver began with the 1983 CBS TV movie Still the Beaver, and was picked up in 1984 as a Disney Channel series with the same name; however, it only lasted one season...
(1985–1988, retitled in season two as The New Leave It to Beaver).
Early life
Billingsley was born Barbara Lillian Combes in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, in 1915, the youngest child of Anglo–American parents: patrolman Robert Collyer Combes (1891–1950) and his first wife, the former Lillian Agnes McLaughlin. She had one elder sibling, Elizabeth (1911–1992). Her parents divorced sometime before her fourth birthday, and her father, who later became an assistant chief of police, remarried. After her divorce, Lillian Combes went to work as a forelady at a knitting mill.
Billingsley fell in love with drama in the second grade, and during her years at George Washington High School in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
(now Washington Preparatory High School
Washington Preparatory High School
George Washington Preparatory High School is a secondary school in the Westmont section of unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States that is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, .It was founded in 1926...
), she performed in all the school plays. She was voted "Class Queen", and graduated from George Washington in 1934.
She used the name Barbara Combes until 1941. After 1941 when she married her first husband, Glenn Billingsley, she used Barbara Billingsley.
Starting out
After attending Los Angeles Junior CollegeLos Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
for one year, Billingsley traveled to Broadway, when Straw Hat, a revue in which she was appearing, attracted enough attention to send it to New York. When, after five days, the show closed, she took an apartment on 57th Street and went to work as a $60–a–week fashion model. She also landed a contract with MGM Studios in 1945.
She usually had uncredited roles in major motion picture productions in the 1940s. These roles continued into the first half of the 1950s with The Bad and the Beautiful
The Bad and the Beautiful
The Bad and the Beautiful is a 1952 MGM melodramatic film that tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame and Gilbert Roland. The film was...
, Three Guys Named Mike
Three Guys Named Mike
Three Guys Named Mike is a 1951 American black-and-white film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Charles Walters.Described as a "lighthearted and lightweight story" by Turner Classic Movies, Three Guys Named Mike chronicles the story of a flight attendant and three men.-Production:The credits...
, opposite Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
, as well as the sci-fi story Invaders from Mars
Invaders from Mars (1953 film)
Invaders From Mars is a science fiction film directed by William Cameron Menzies, taken from a scenario by Richard Blake, and based on a story treatment by John Tucker Battle who was inspired by a dream recounted by his wife. It was produced independently by Edward L. Alperson Jr. and starred...
(1953). Her film experience led to roles on the sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
s Professional Father
Professional Father
Professional Father is a 1955 CBS situation comedy television series starring Stephen Dunne as Dr. Tom Wilson, a child psychologist successful with his patients but less than effective with his own family...
(with Stephen Dunne and Beverly Washburn
Beverly Washburn
Beverly Washburn is an American actress who appeared as a young girl in NBC's The Loretta Young Show and as an older teenager in Loretta Young's 1962-1963 CBS family drama, The New Loretta Young Show...
) and The Brothers
The Brothers (US TV sitcom)
The Brothers is an American television sitcom broadcast by CBS during its 1956-57 season. Reruns of The Brothers were also broadcast by CBS during the summer of 1958 on an alternate-week basis, alternating with repeats of Bachelor Father....
(with Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show...
and Bob Sweeney
Bob Sweeney
Bob Sweeney may refer to:*Bob KO Sweeney, , American boxer*Bob Sweeney , , American professional ice hockey player*Bob Sweeney , television actor, director and producer...
) as well as an appearance with David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
on his anthology series Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...
. In 1957, she guest starred in the episode "That Magazine" of the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve
Mr. Adams and Eve
Mr. Adams and Eve is a CBS sitcom starring Howard Duff and his then wife, Ida Lupino, as a fictitious acting couple, Howard and Eve Adams, residing in Beverly Hills, California. In the television series, Lupino is known professionally as Eve Drake. The program aired sixty-six episodes from January...
, starring Howard Duff
Howard Duff
Howard Green Duff was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio.Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team...
and Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
. She co–starred opposite Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
and Natalie Trundy
Natalie Trundy
Natalie Trundy is an American actress, and the widow of movie producer Arthur P. Jacobs.She made a sizeable contribution to the Planet of the Apes movie series during the 1970s. She appeared as the telepathic mutant Albina in the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, as Dr...
in The Careless Years
The Careless Years
The Careless Years is a 1957 film from United Artists directed by Arthur Hiller and produced by Edward Lewis. The film was the directorial debut for Hiller.-Plot:...
, which was her first and only major role in film.
In 1952 Billingsley had her first guest–starring role on an episode of The Abbott and Costello Show
The Abbott and Costello Show
The Abbott and Costello Show is an American television sitcom starring the popular comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello that premiered in syndication in the fall of 1952 and ran until May 1954....
. The part led to other roles on The Lone Wolf, two episodes of City Detective
City Detective (TV series)
City Detective is a half-hour syndicated crime drama starring Rod Cameron as 43-year-old Bart Grant, a tough 1950s New York City police lieutenant. The first of three consecutive Rod Cameron series, City Detective aired between January 1, 1953 and May 10, 1955...
, The Pride of the Family
The Pride of the Family
The Pride of the Family was a half-hour situation comedy starring Paul Hartman, Fay Wray, Natalie Wood, and Robert Hyatt, which aired for forty episodes on ABC in the 1953–1954 season....
, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
, Letter to Loretta, General Electric Summer Originals, You Are There, Cavalcade of America
Cavalcade of America
Cavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented a musical, such as an adaptation of Show Boat, and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on...
, Panic!
Panic!
Panic! is a video game for the Sega CD that involves pressing numerous buttons in order to transverse a young boy or his dog through a complex labyrinth. The game was originally released in Japan, and had some risque "gags" that were assumed to be edited out if the game ever got a North American...
, Mr. Adams and Eve
Mr. Adams and Eve
Mr. Adams and Eve is a CBS sitcom starring Howard Duff and his then wife, Ida Lupino, as a fictitious acting couple, Howard and Eve Adams, residing in Beverly Hills, California. In the television series, Lupino is known professionally as Eve Drake. The program aired sixty-six episodes from January...
, The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, Silver Spoons
Silver Spoons
Silver Spoons is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 25, 1982 to May 11, 1986 and in first-run syndication from September 15, 1986 to March 4, 1987...
, Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Parker Lewis Can't Lose is an American teen sitcom that originally aired on FOX from September 1990 to June 1993. During the last season, the series sported the simpler title Parker Lewis. The series was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and was strongly influenced by the feature film Ferris...
, Mike Hammer
Mike Hammer
Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:...
, Empty Nest, among many others. She reprised her June Cleaver
June Cleaver
June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is a principal character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. June and her husband, Ward, are often invoked as the archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s. The couple are the parents of two sons, Wally and "Beaver"...
role three times, in Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, Baby Boom
Baby boom
A baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds and when the number of annual births exceeds 2 per 100 women...
and Roseanne. She also guest-starred on an episode of Make Room For Daddy, in which Thomas's character is a widower. The producers reportedly considered casting her as his second wife, but later decided against it, and Marjorie Lord
Marjorie Lord
Marjorie Lord is an American television and film actress. She played Kathy "Clancy" Williams opposite Danny Thomas on Make Room for Daddy and later Make Room for Granddaddy.-Early life and career:...
eventually got the role.
Leave It to Beaver
After Billingsley signed a contract with Universal StudiosUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
in 1957, she made her mark on TV as everyday mother June Cleaver
June Cleaver
June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver is a principal character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. June and her husband, Ward, are often invoked as the archetypal suburban parents of the 1950s. The couple are the parents of two sons, Wally and "Beaver"...
on Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
, alongside other 1950s family sitcoms such as Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s.-Radio:...
, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...
, Make Room For Daddy and The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
. It debuted on CBS in 1957, to mediocre ratings and was soon cancelled. However, the show moved to ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
the following year and stayed there for the next five seasons. The show was featured in over 100 countries. Also starring on Beaver were Hugh Beaumont, in the role of Ward Cleaver
Ward Cleaver
Ward Cleaver is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Ward and his wife, June, are often invoked as archetypal suburban parents of the babyboomer 1950s. The couple are the parents of Wally, a thirteen-year-old in the eighth grade, and seven-year-old ...
, June's husband and the kids' father, as well as child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
s Tony Dow
Tony Dow
Tony Lee Dow is an American film producer, director, sculptor, and a television child actor of the 1950s and 1960s.Dow is best known for his role in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, which ran in primetime from 1957 to 1963...
in the role of Wally Cleaver
Wally Cleaver
Wallace "Wally" Cleaver is a fictional character in the iconic American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Wally is the thirteen-year-old son of archetypal 50s suburban parents, Ward and June Cleaver and the older brother of the seven-year-old title character, Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver...
and Jerry Mathers
Jerry Mathers
Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers is an American television, film, and stage actor. Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom series Leave It to Beaver , in which he played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of archetypal suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver , and the brother...
as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver.
In the show Billingsley often could be seen doing household chores wearing pearls and earrings. The pearls, which in real-life were Billingsley's trademark, were in turn her idea to have her alter ego wear on television. The actress had what she termed "a hollow" on her neck and thought that wearing a strand of white pearls would lighten it up for the cameras. In later seasons, she started wearing high heels to compensate for the fact that the actors who played her sons were growing up and getting taller than she was. So associated was the pearl necklace with the character, that an entire episode of the sequel series dealt with the necklace when lost. Billingsley had one regret about the show's lasting success: residual payments
Residual (entertainment industry)
A residual is a payment made to the creator of performance art for subsequent showings or screenings of the work. A typical use is in the payment of residuals for television reruns. The word is often used in the plural form.-Radio and television:The residual system started in U.S. network radio...
ended after six reruns in standard 1950s actors' contracts.
"She was the ideal mother," Billingsley said of her character in 1997 in TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
. "Some people think she was weakish, but I don't. She was the love in that family. She set a good example for what a wife could be. I had two boys at home when I did the show. I think the character became kind of like me and vice versa. I've never known where one started and where one stopped." As for the idealized TV family on "Leave It to Beaver," which continues in reruns on cable more than half a century after its debut, Billingsley had her own explanation for the Cleavers' enduring appeal. "Good grief," she told TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, "I think everybody would like a family like that. Wouldn't it be nice if you came home from school and there was Mom standing there with her little apron and cookies waiting?" Billingsley, however, did question her character's reactions to the Cleaver children's misbehavior, basing her concern on personal experience as the mother of two sons. As co-producer Joseph Connelly explained, "In scenes where she's mad at the boys, she's always coming over to us with the script and objecting. 'I don't see why June is so mad over what Beaver's done. I certainly wouldn't be.' As a result, many of Beaver's crimes have been rewritten into something really heinous like lying about them, in order to give his mother a strong motive for blowing her lady-like stack."
After six seasons and 234 episodes, the popular series was canceled due to the cast's desire to move on to other projects, especially Mathers, who retired from acting to enter his freshman year in high school. The younger actor considered Billingsley a mentor, second mother and a close professional friend:
After the show's cancellation, Mathers remained her close friend for over 45 years. They were reunited on The New Leave It to Beaver
The New Leave It to Beaver
The New Leave It to Beaver is an American sitcom sequel to the 1950s and '60s series, Leave It to Beaver. The New Leave It to Beaver began with the 1983 CBS TV movie Still the Beaver, and was picked up in 1984 as a Disney Channel series with the same name; however, it only lasted one season...
. Billingsley, Mathers, Dow, Frank Bank
Frank Bank
Frank Bank is an American actor, particularly known for his role as Clarence 'Lumpy' Rutherford on the situation comedy television series Leave It to Beaver.Bank is a bond broker in Los Angeles, California...
and Ken Osmond
Ken Osmond
Ken Osmond is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of four, Osmond is best known for his iconic role as Eddie Haskell on the 1950s television situation comedy Leave It to Beaver, and for reprising the role on the 1980s revival series The New Leave It to...
also celebrated the show's 50th anniversary together.
After Beaver
When production of the show ended in 1963, Billingsley had become typecastTypecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
as saccharine sweet and had trouble obtaining acting jobs for years. She traveled extensively abroad until the late 1970s. After an absence of 17 years from the public eye (other than appearing in two episodes of The F.B.I. in 1971), Billingsley spoofed her wholesome image with a brief appearance in the comedy Airplane!
Airplane!
Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
(1980), as a passenger who could "speak jive
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
". She became the voice of Nanny and The Little Train on Muppet Babies
Muppet Babies
Jim Henson's Muppet Babies is an American animated television series that aired from September 15, 1984 to November 2, 1991 on CBS. The show portrayed childhood versions of the Muppets living together in a large nursery in the care of a human woman called Nanny...
from 1984 to 1991.
Billingsley appeared with Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
and Pam Dawber
Pam Dawber
Pam Dawber is an American actress best known for her lead television sitcom roles as Mindy McConnell in Mork & Mindy and Samantha Russell in My Sister Sam .-Life and career:...
in a 1982 episode of Mork & Mindy. She appeared in a Leave It to Beaver reunion television movie entitled Still the Beaver in 1983. Hugh Beaumont had died the year before of a heart attack, so she played his widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
. She also appeared in the subsequent revival of the series, The New Leave It to Beaver
The New Leave It to Beaver
The New Leave It to Beaver is an American sitcom sequel to the 1950s and '60s series, Leave It to Beaver. The New Leave It to Beaver began with the 1983 CBS TV movie Still the Beaver, and was picked up in 1984 as a Disney Channel series with the same name; however, it only lasted one season...
(1985–1989). In the 1997 film
1997 in film
-Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
version of Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver (film)
Leave It to Beaver is a 1997 film that is a remake of the TV series of the same name. There are many in-jokes related to the original series within the movie.-Plot:...
, Billingsley played the character "Aunt Martha". In 1995, she appeared with other "TV Moms" on Roseanne. In 1998, she appeared on Candid Camera
Candid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
, along with June Lockhart
June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr...
and Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford was an American actress best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons .-Career:...
, as audience members in a spoof seminar on motherhood.
On October 4, 2007, she and her surviving castmates, Jerry Mathers
Jerry Mathers
Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers is an American television, film, and stage actor. Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom series Leave It to Beaver , in which he played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, the younger son of archetypal suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver , and the brother...
, Tony Dow
Tony Dow
Tony Lee Dow is an American film producer, director, sculptor, and a television child actor of the 1950s and 1960s.Dow is best known for his role in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, which ran in primetime from 1957 to 1963...
, Ken Osmond
Ken Osmond
Ken Osmond is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of four, Osmond is best known for his iconic role as Eddie Haskell on the 1950s television situation comedy Leave It to Beaver, and for reprising the role on the 1980s revival series The New Leave It to...
and Frank Bank
Frank Bank
Frank Bank is an American actor, particularly known for his role as Clarence 'Lumpy' Rutherford on the situation comedy television series Leave It to Beaver.Bank is a bond broker in Los Angeles, California...
, were reunited on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, to celebrate Leave It to Beavers 50th anniversary. According to interviewer Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron is an American television personality and game show host, best known as the host of the ABC reality series Dancing with the Stars and host of America's Funniest Home Videos . He was also host of Hollywood Squares and a fill-in host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...
, both of Billingsley's co-stars, Mathers and Osmond, currently get financial advice from another co-star, Bank.
On May 6, 2008, hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Originally established as Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary 958-bed hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre located in Los Angeles, California, US. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over...
, she was unable to attend the Academy Leonard Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, California, where the Academy of Television Arts & Science presented "A Salute to TV Moms."
Personal life
Billingsley was married to:- Glenn Billingsley, Sr. (1912–1984), a restaurateur who was a nephew of Sherman BillingsleySherman BillingsleySherman Billingsley was an American nightclub owner and former bootlegger who was the founder and owner of New York's Stork Club....
, the owner of the Stork ClubStork ClubThe Stork Club was a nightclub in New York City from 1929 to 1965. From 1934 onwards, it was located at 3 East 53rd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue...
. Her husband's businesses included Billingsley's Golden Bull, Billingsley's Bocage, and the Outrigger Polynesian restaurants in Los Angeles, and a Stork Club in Key West, Florida, where the couple lived briefly after their marriage in 1941 (divorced 1947).http://www.billingsleysteakhouse.com They had two sons, Drew and Glenn, Jr., who now own and operate Billingsley's Steak House in West Los Angeles, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, which was formerly their father's original Golden Bull restaurant.http://www.billingsleysteakhouse.com By this marriage, the actress was related to actor/producer Peter BillingsleyPeter BillingsleyPeter Billingsley , also known as Peter Michaelsen and Peter Billingsley-Michaelsen, is an American actor, director, and producer best known for his role as Ralphie in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story. He began his career as an infant, in television commercials.-Early life, family and...
. - Roy KellinoRoy KellinoRoy Kellino was a British film director, producer and cinematographer. He was born Philip Roy Gislingham in London, the son of the silent-era director W.P. Kellino. he directed his first film Concerning Mr. Martin in 1937...
(1912–1956), a British-born movie director who had previously been married to British actress Pamela MasonPamela MasonPamela Mason was a British actress, author, and screenwriter who appeared in a number of British films.-Early life and career:...
. He and Billingsley were married from 1953 until his death. - Dr. William S. Mortensen (1907–1981), whom she married in 1959. By this marriage, she had stepchildren; the oldest was William Mortensen, Jr., retired Chairman of the Board of old First Federal of Santa Monica
Death
Billingsley died of polymyalgiaPolymyalgia rheumatica
Polymyalgia rheumatica , abbreviated as PMR, is a syndrome with pain or stiffness, usually in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The pain can be very sudden, or can occur gradually over a period of time...
at her home in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
on October 16, 2010, at the age of 94. She is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery
Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica
Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery is located at 1847 14th Street in Santa Monica, California.-Notable burials:*Hugo Ballin , artist*Mabel Ballin , Actress*George Bancroft , actor...
in Santa Monica, California.
Film
- The Argyle Secrets (1948)
- Valiant Hombre (1948)
- Prejudice (1949)
- I Cheated the Law (1949)
- Air Hostess (1949)
- Shadow on the WallShadow on the Wall (film)Shadow on the Wall is a 1950 psychological thriller film starring Ann Sothern, Zachary Scott, Gigi Perreau and Nancy Davis. It is based on the novel Death in the Doll's House by Lawrence P. Bachmann and Hannah Lees.-Plot:...
(1950) - Trial Without Jury (1950)
- Pretty BabyPretty Baby (1950 film)Pretty Baby is a 1950 comedy film starring Dennis Morgan, Betsy Drake, Zachary Scott and Edmund Gwenn. A young woman's little white lie leads to unforeseen complications.-Plot:...
(1950) - Three Guys Named MikeThree Guys Named MikeThree Guys Named Mike is a 1951 American black-and-white film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Charles Walters.Described as a "lighthearted and lightweight story" by Turner Classic Movies, Three Guys Named Mike chronicles the story of a flight attendant and three men.-Production:The credits...
(1951) - Inside Straight (1951)
- Angels in the OutfieldAngels in the Outfield (1951 film)Angels in the Outfield is a 1951 American black-and-white film starring Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh, directed by Clarence Brown, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
(1951) (uncredited) - Two-Dollar BettorTwo-Dollar BettorTwo Dollar Bettor is a 1951 black-and-white film. It is both a camp morality story and B-movie film noir.-Plot:A middle-aged man who places a two-dollar bet on a horse at the track and wins. The widower with two teenaged daughters becomes hooked on gambling and within a week he begins cashing in...
(1951) - The Bad and the BeautifulThe Bad and the BeautifulThe Bad and the Beautiful is a 1952 MGM melodramatic film that tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame and Gilbert Roland. The film was...
(1952) (uncredited) - Young Man with Ideas (1952)
- Woman in the Dark (1952)
- The Lady Wants Mink (1953)
- The Careless YearsThe Careless YearsThe Careless Years is a 1957 film from United Artists directed by Arthur Hiller and produced by Edward Lewis. The film was the directorial debut for Hiller.-Plot:...
(1957) - Airplane!Airplane!Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
(1980) - Still the Beaver (1983) (TV)
- Back to the BeachBack to the BeachBack to the Beach is a 1987 comedy film starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, directed by Lyndall Hobbs. The original music score is composed by Steve Dorff. The film generated a total domestic gross of $13,110,903...
(1987) - Bay Coven (1987) (TV)
- Leave It to BeaverLeave It to Beaver (film)Leave It to Beaver is a 1997 film that is a remake of the TV series of the same name. There are many in-jokes related to the original series within the movie.-Plot:...
(1997) - Secret Santa (2003) (TV)
Television
- Schlitz Playhouse of StarsSchlitz Playhouse of StarsSchlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
(1953–1955) - City DetectiveCity Detective (TV series)City Detective is a half-hour syndicated crime drama starring Rod Cameron as 43-year-old Bart Grant, a tough 1950s New York City police lieutenant. The first of three consecutive Rod Cameron series, City Detective aired between January 1, 1953 and May 10, 1955...
, two episodes:- "The Corpse on the Carousel" (1953)
- "The Glass Thumb" (1954)
- Four Star PlayhouseFour Star PlayhouseFour Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...
(1953–1955) - The BrothersThe Brothers (US TV sitcom)The Brothers is an American television sitcom broadcast by CBS during its 1956-57 season. Reruns of The Brothers were also broadcast by CBS during the summer of 1958 on an alternate-week basis, alternating with repeats of Bachelor Father....
(1956) - Make Room for DaddyThe Danny Thomas ShowThe Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS...
(1957) - Leave It to BeaverLeave It to BeaverLeave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
(1957–1963) - The F.B.I. (1971)
- Mork and MindyMork and MindyMork & Mindy is an American science fiction sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC. The series starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-man egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate...
(1982) - Amazing StoriesAmazing Stories (TV series)Amazing Stories is a fantasy, horror, and science fiction television anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. It ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987, and was somewhat erratically screened in Britain by BBC1 and BBC2 - billed in the Radio Times as "Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories" - with episodes...
(1985) - Jim Henson's Muppet Babies (1984–1990)
- The New Leave It to BeaverThe New Leave It to BeaverThe New Leave It to Beaver is an American sitcom sequel to the 1950s and '60s series, Leave It to Beaver. The New Leave It to Beaver began with the 1983 CBS TV movie Still the Beaver, and was picked up in 1984 as a Disney Channel series with the same name; however, it only lasted one season...
(1985–1989) - Parker Lewis Can't LoseParker Lewis Can't LoseParker Lewis Can't Lose is an American teen sitcom that originally aired on FOX from September 1990 to June 1993. During the last season, the series sported the simpler title Parker Lewis. The series was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and was strongly influenced by the feature film Ferris...
(1991) - RoseanneRoseanne (TV series)Roseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from October 18, 1988 to May 20, 1997. Starring Roseanne Barr, the show revolved around the Conners, an Illinois working class family...
(1995) - Mysterious Ways (2000)
- My Name Is EarlMy Name Is EarlMy Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States...
(2007)
Further reading
- Applebaum, Irwyn. The World According to Beaver. TV Books, 1984, 1998.
- Mathers, Jerry. ...And Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver". Berkley Boulevard Books, 1998.
External links
- Barbara Billingsley Interview at Archive of American TelevisionArchive of American TelevisionThe Archive of American Television is a division of the non-profit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from all aspects of the television industry....
- "Barbara Billingsley, TV’s June Cleaver, Dies at 94," by MICHAEL POLLAK, The New York Times, October 16, 2010