We are in the midst of our blog theme, Model Parents, and today we get to know June Cleaver, also known as Barbara Billingsley.
Billingsley was born in Los Angeles in 1915. Barbara’s parents divorced when she was under five; her dad was a policeman, who was eventually appointed the assistant Chief of Police, and her mom worked at a knitting mill.
Her mother used to take her and her sister to the movies quite often, so she was exposed to all the top actors growing up. She also loved tennis and she said you could play at night. You put a quarter in this machine and it lit up the court so you got an hour to play.
Billingsley left college after a year to appear in a Broadway review. When the show closed after only five days, Barbara decided to stay and began working as a fashion model for Stephen Sondheim’s mother and later Hattie Carnegie. She didn’t have an easy time there; she said she was so innocent and no one had talked to her about life, so she grew up quickly.
She married her husband Glenn in 1941 and four years later she was offered a contract with MGM Studios. The couple moved to Los Angeles where Glenn opened a steakhouse. Unfortunately, their marriage didn’t last and they divorced in 1947, with two young sons.
She would appear in 46 films, most of them in the forties. One of her last movie roles was probably her most famous when she appeared in Airplane!
After 1950 most of her roles were on television. Her first exposure to television was in 1939 in a friend’s New York apartment. Unlike Jane Wyatt and her friends, Billingsley thought it was fascinating.
During the fifties she appeared in a lot of the dramatic playhouse series that were so popular that decade. Her first recurring role was as Barbara on The Box Brothers. In this show, imdb.com states “the two Box brothers were polar opposites who ran a photography studio in San Francisco. Gilly (Bob Sweeney) is the shy retiring sibling, while excitable Harvey (Gale Gordon) is domineering. Harvey dates self-assured Margaret while Gilly’s girl is quiet Marilee.”
In 1953 she married director Roy Kellino, and the marriage lasted for three years when he passed away. Her last marriage to Dr. William S. Mortenson began in 1959 and ended in 1981 when he passed away.
Her next recurring role would make her a household name. In 1957 she accepted the offer to star in Leave It to Beaver. The series was created for Buddy Ebsen and that’s who Billingsley tested with. She went for the audition even though she and her husband at the time were getting ready to leave for Spain where he was directing a movie. Her husband passed away before they left, so when she was asked about taking the part for the new sitcom, she said yes. In the pilot Ebsen was replaced by Max Showalter. It was an episode of Playhouse 57 called “It’s a Small World.” She said she was happy that Hugh Beaumont ended up with the part once the show was ready to begin taping, and she said that he was the best father on television.
The show became a big hit, airing for five seasons. She starred with Beaumont, who we’ll talk about next week; Jerry Mathers; and Tony Dow.
Billingsley was often stereotyped as the typical suburban mother cleaning her house while wearing pearls. However, the real story behind the pearls is a much simpler one. Barbara had a hollow in her neck that she was self-conscious about, so she thought wearing a string of pearls would help hide it. She was also made fun of vacuuming in high heels. She said she wore flats the first year or two, but when the boys began getting taller, the producers wanted her to wear heels, so they didn’t surpass her in height.
Barbara defended June Cleaver when others complained about sitcom life not being realistic. Billingsley said June “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.” She said she thought most people would appreciate a mother like June. “Wouldn’t it be nice if you came home from school and there was Mom standing there with her little apron and cookies waiting?” Her “sons” on the show considered her a mentor and a second mother.
The one thing Billingsley regretted about the show was signing the typical contract that paid actors residuals for up to six reruns. Who knew Leave it To Beaver would still be on the air almost seventy years after it debuted.
She stayed close to the cast of Leave It to Beaver. She said, “No father on television was better than Hugh.” After his death, she said she missed “him very much because we were so close.” She was also close to Richard Deacon who she, like almost everyone else who knew him, described as incredibly funny.
Jerry Mathers talked about his friendship with Barbara after her death. “For me she was like the favorite teacher that we all had in school. I was lucky enough to work with her for six years and have a life-long relationship with her. She was a very kind woman and a generous philanthropist who supported many charities, always ready to give anyone in need a helping hand.
After the show ended, Barbara was typecast and couldn’t find a role she wanted. She traveled abroad off and on for about seventeen years. With the exception of an appearance on The FBI, she would not be seen on tv again until the 1980s after her role on the satire Airplane! While she is only on camera a couple of minutes, her role in the movie is memorable. As a jab at her very white suburban mom role of June Cleaver, Barbara comes to the aid of a stewardess who can’t understand two passengers having an argument. The passengers were Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs, and the sweet, grandmotherly Barbara tells the stewardess that she knows jive and she proceeds to talk to and berate the two for arguing. The script initially just said “speak jive,” so Billingsley went to lunch with Al White and Norman Alexander Gibbs (the “Jive Dudes”) and they improvised the dialogue together.While she doesn’t even have a name in the movie, this cameo sparked her career and she continued to get fan mail for years.
During the 1980s she appeared on several shows including Mork & Mindy, Silver Spoons, and The Love Boat. From 1985-1989 she reprised her role of June Cleaver on The New Leave It to Beaver show.
She showed up in several shows in the nineties including Empty Nest and Murphy Brown. Her final credit was in a made-for-tv movie, Secret Santa, in 2003.
Billingsley passed away in her home in 2010.
When she wasn’t acting, her interests included gardening, watching movies, playing tennis, sewing, traveling, and spending time with her family.
One thing Barbara said she regretted was not getting an education in drama before becoming an actress. She said she was able to take some classes later, but the people who came to Hollywood with education degrees had much more confidence. And later she learned that the two key skills for actors are relaxation and concentration. Without both, the job is too hard.
When asked how she wanted to be remembered, she echoed Jane Wyatt, saying that she wanted to be known as a good mother and wife. She said she’d like people to remember Leave it to Beaver, but if they think she raised a good family, that’s important and she wants to be a good example.
I think it’s fascinating that our two moms in our “Model Parents” theme both focused on their family life rather than their professional life. They came from very different backgrounds with Wyatt growing up in a wealthy family where both parents chose to work and Billingsley growing up in a middle-class family where her mother had to work to help support her family. They proved by their actions that the mothers on Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver did live realistic lives, and these two moms chose to live this same life off the set as well.
thewritelife61 