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Barbara Billingsley biography

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Quick Facts

  • PLACE OF DEATH: Santa Monica, California
  • Originally: Barbara Lillian Combes
more about Barbara

Best Known For

From 1957 to 1963, actress Barbara Billingsley played the perfect apron-wearing, cookie-baking housewife June Cleaver on TV's Leave it to Beaver.

Synopsis

Born on December 22, 1915, actress Barbara Billingsley had an acting career that spanned more than thirty years. But her best known role was as housewife June Cleaver on TV's Leave it to Beaver (1957–1963). Another notable performance was in 1980's Airplane!, in which demure Billingsley famously translated street slang, proclaiming, "I speak jive."

Contents

Quotes

"I speak jive."
– Barbara Billingsley

Profile

Actress. Born Barbara Lillian Combes on December 22, 1915 in Los Angeles, California. Barbara Billingsley is most famous for her role as June Cleaver on television's beloved Leave it to Beaver, which aired from 1957 to 1963. Billingsley played the perfect apron-wearing, cookie-baking, 1950s-style housewife and mother to sons Wally and Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers) and husband Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont).

In an acting career that has spanned more than thirty years, Billingsley had also appeared in numerous other film and television roles including Airplane! (1980) wherein she made a cameo as a demure passenger who volunteers to translate for flight attendants unable to communicate with a pair of passengers. "I speak jive," is her character's famous line, and the three go on to have a raucous conversation in street-slang. She also appeared in a Leave it to Beaver film (as Aunt Martha) that was released in 1997. Billingsley also made guest appearances on popular television series such as Murphy Brown and Roseanne.

Billingsley was married three times. She and her first husband, Glenn Billingsley, had two sons, Drew and Glenn, Jr. Her second husband was director Roy Kellino, who died just months before she landed the June Cleaver role. In 1959, she wed physician Bill Mortenson and the couple remained married until his death in 1981.

After a long illness, Barbara Billingsley died at her home in Santa Monica, California on October 16, 2010. She was 94.

© 2012 A+E Networks. All rights reserved.

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