5 Things You Never Knew About ‘Leave It to Beaver’ Star Barbara Billingsley, America’s Favorite TV Mom
Barbara Billingsley, who became one of television’s most iconic suburban moms, was born Dec. 22, 1915, in Los Angeles and died on Oct. 16, 2010. Unlike the idyllic onscreen Leave It to Beaver family that would define her and her career, Billingsley’s parents split up before she turned 4.
Still, the pretty blonde enjoyed her childhood, acting in school plays and serving as Prom Queen. The acting bug stuck fast. Not quite a bombshell, Billingsley still earned steady work in Hollywood. But it wasn’t until she was 41 that she put on a nipped-waist housedress, some pearls and a pair of heels and found stardom as domestic extraordinaire June Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver.
To celebrate what would have been Billingsley’s 109th birthday, here are 5 Fun Facts you may not have know about everyone’s favorite jive-talkin’ housewife.
- She championed June’s pearls and heels
Though June Cleaver was, and is, routinely mocked for her fancified house wear, those ever-present pearls and heels were Billingsley’s own idea. The former covered up a hollow in her neck about which Billingsley was self-conscious, while the latter ensured that the 5’5” actress would remain taller than her TV sons for as long as she possibly could. “I was lucky they didn’t put me on an apple box,” she quipped.
2. June Cleaver got around (the TV backlots)
No, not like that. Billingsley was inarguably typecast as June Cleaver, and struggled to find major roles in the wake of Leave It to Beaver‘s success. But while Billingsley sought other work, she was happy to resurrect her most famous character. She played June on six different series: Leave It to Beaver (1957), The Love Boat (1977), Elvira’s Movie Macabre (1981), The New Leave It to Beaver (1983), Baby Boom (1988), and Hi Honey, I’m Home (1991).
3. Fans Loved to see her on the Boat!
Though Billingsley made two appearances aboard The Love Boat, her final appearance, on what was also the series finale, reunited her with her Leave It to Beaver costars Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers — all in Cleaver character — along with her former Airplane! costar, Peter Graves.
4. She speaks jive!
Billingsley may have been typecast in the years following Leave It to Beaver, but her other unforgettable role happened because she had played the squeaky-clean homemaker. “I was sent the script and I thought it was the craziest script I’ve ever read,” Billingsley told the Archive of American Television of being cast in the 1980 uber spoof, Airplane! “My part wasn’t written,” she added. “It just said I talked jive. … It wasn’t hard for me to learn. And it reached a point where I was as well known for Airplane as I was for Leave It to Beaver. It revived my career.”
5. She was briefly related to Ralphie
Though she remarried twice after they split, Barbara kept the last name of her first husband, singer-turned-artist and restauranteur Glenn Billingsley, whom she was with from 1941 to 1947. Glenn’s cousin, Gail, is mom to A Christmas Story star Peter Billingsley, who played the Beaver-like Ralphie.
