June Allyson, 88, ‘Perfect Wife’ Actress
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June Allyson, the sunny on-screen “perfect wife” of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, died Saturday at her home in Ojai, Calif., after a long illness. She was 88.
During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson could be domesticated. Petite, blonde, and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife.
With typical wonderment, Allyson expressed surprise in a 1986 interview that she had ever become a movie star:
“I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don’t sing like Judy Garland. I don’t dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they’d take me home to meet Mom.”
Allyson’s real life belied the sunshiny image she presented in films of the ’40s and ’50s. As she revealed in her 1982 autobiography, her “ideal marriage” to actor-director Dick Powell was beset with frustrations.
Born Eleanor Geisman on October 7, 1917, in the Bronx, she was raised mostly by her mother. Her alcoholic father abandoned the family when she was 6. A childhood accident left her crippled, but after a determined recovery, she tried out for the chorus in “Sing out the News,” on Broadway. Soon she was understudying for Betty Hutton in “Panama Hattie,” and then got the lead role in “Best Foot Forward” in 1941. She made her feature film debut by repeating her role in the MGM musical, which starred Lucille Ball.
After a series of small roles, Allyson appeared opposite Johnson in several films, and she was Stewart’s wife in “The Stratton Story,” “The Glenn Miller Story,” and “Strategic Air Command.”
After her film career ended in the late ’50s, Allyson starred on television as hostess and occasional star of “The Dupont Show With June Allyson.” In later years, she appeared on “Love Boat” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
For the last 20 years, Allyson appeared in commercials for Depends adult diapers and championed the importance of research in urological and gynecological diseases in seniors.
