Lassie and Lost In Space star June Lockhart dies aged 100

June Lockhart, right, who played the character of Ruth Martin, mother of Timmy Martin, played by Jon Provost, left, during the classic series Lassie, poses for a photograph with Lassie during arrivals at CBS’s 75th anniversary celebration in New York in 2003 (Louis Lanzano/AP)

American actress June Lockhart, who became a mother figure for a generation of television viewers whether at home in Lassie or up in the stratosphere in Lost In Space, has died aged 100.

Lockhart died on Thursday of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, a friend of 40 years, said on Saturday.

“She was very happy up until the very end, reading the New York Times and LA Times everyday,” he said.

Actress June Lockhart addresses bloggers at Nasa’s social media event at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

“It was very important to her to stay focused on the news of the day.”

The daughter of prolific character actor Gene Lockhart, Lockhart was cast frequently in ingenue roles as a young film actor, but television made her a star.

From 1958 to 1964, she portrayed Ruth Martin, who raised the orphaned Timmy (Jon Provost), in the popular CBS series Lassie.

From 1965 to 1968, she travelled aboard the spaceship Jupiter II as mother to the Robinson family in the campy CBS adventure Lost in Space.

Her portrayals of warm, compassionate mothers endeared her to young viewers, and decades later baby boomers flocked to nostalgia conventions to meet Lockhart and buy her autographed photos.

Offscreen, Lockhart insisted, she was nothing like the women she portrayed.

June Lockhart with the crew from television series Lost in Space in Boston in 1995 (Steven Senne/AP)

“I must quote Dan Rather,” she said in a 1994 interview.

“I can control my reputation, but not my image, because my image is how you see me.

“I love rock ‘n’ roll and going to the concerts. 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.”

Early in her career, Lockhart appeared in numerous films.

Among them were All This and Heaven Too, Adam Had Four Sons, Sergeant York, Miss Annie Rooney, Forever and a Day and Meet Me in St Louis.

June Lockhart poses for a photo as she arrives for the 60th Anniversary DVD release screening of Meet Me in St Louis in Los Angeles (Nam Y Huh/AP)

She also made Son of Lassie, the 1945 sequel to Lassie, Come Home, playing the grown-up version of the role created by Elizabeth Taylor.

Lockhart remained active long after Lost in Space, appearing often in episodic television as well as in recurring roles in the daytime soap opera General Hospital and night-time soaps, Knots Landing and The Colbys.

She also used her own media pass to attend presidential news conferences, narrated beauty pageants and holiday parades, appeared in B pictures and toured in the plays Steel Magnolias, Bedroom Farce and Once More with Feeling.

“Her true passion was journalism,” Mr Gregory said. “She loved going to the White House briefing rooms.”

Young June made her stage debut at eight, dancing in a children’s ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1938 A Christmas Carol, playing the daughter of Bob Cratchit and his wife, who were played by her parents.

She was married and divorced twice: to John Maloney, a physician, father of her daughters Anne Kathleen and June Elizabeth; and architect John C Lindsay.

Throughout her later career, Lockhart was connected in the public mind with Lassie.

Even though she sometimes mocked the show, she conceded: “How wonderful that in a career there is one role for which you are known.

“Many actors work all their lives and never have one part that is really theirs.”