June Allyson

Biography: June Allyson

Though she despised the appellation "the girl next door," this was how June Allyson was promoted throughout most of her MGM career. The blonde, raspy-voiced actress was born in a tenement section of the Bronx. Her career nearly ended before it began when 8-year-old June seriously injured her back in a fall. For four years she wore a steel brace, then spent several more months in physical therapy. Thanks to the financial support of her grown half-brother, June was able to take dancing lessons. At 19, she made her film debut in the Vitaphone short Swing for Sale (1937). In her earliest movie appearances (notably the 1937 Educational Studios 2-reeler Dime a Dance) June projected a far more worldly, all-knowing image than she would convey in her later feature films. After co-starring in such Broadway productions as Sing Out the News, Very Warm for May and Panama Hattie and Best Foot Forward, June was signed to an MGM contract in 1942. The studio quickly began molding June's screen image of a freckled-faced, peaches-and-cream "best girl" and perfect wife. She was permitted to display some grit in The Girl in White (1952), playing New York City's first woman doctor, but most of her screen characters were quietly subordinate to the male leads. One of her favorite co-stars was James Stewart, with whom she appeared in The Stratton Story (1949) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954). In 1955, she completely broke away from her on-camera persona as the spiteful wife of Jose Ferrer in The Shrike (1955), a role for which she was personally selected by the demanding Ferrer. June was the wife of actor/ producer/ director Dick Powell, a union that lasted from 1945 until Powell's death in 1963, despite several well-publicized breakups. She starred in and hosted the 1960 TV anthology series The June Allyson Show, produced by Powell's Four Star Productions. After her film career ended, June made a handful of nightclub singing appearances; in 1972, she made a brief screen comeback in They Only Kill Their Masters, astonishing her fans by playing a murderess. In recent years, June Allyson has appeared in several TV commercials. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Movies (37)
TV (1)
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Solid Ones (2000)
Cast: June Allyson Brent Florence Kenny Luper
Length: 95min
Three sad sacks learn the connection between crime and auto repair in this independent comedy. Frank (Brent Florence), Neil (Christian Leffler), and Joey (Kenny Luper) are three 20-something buddies living in a one horse town in Northern California....
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A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
Cast: Mary Astor June Allyson Charles Coburn Peter Graves Ross Hunter
Tags: Melodrama Drama
Length: 88min
Though billed fifth, Mary Astor is the one to watch in the Ross Hunter-produced soapera Stranger in My Arms. Astor portrays a neurotically possessive mother who'll stop at nothing to win a posthumous medal of honor for her son. But air force major...
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That's Entertainment! III (1994)
Cast: Lena Horne Gene Kelly Debbie Reynolds Mickey Rooney Joan Crawford
Tags: Dance Biography Film, TV & Radio Film & Television History
Length: 113min
In 1974, MGM Studios released its first compilation of musical highlights from 45 years of Hollywood extravaganzas. Entitled That's Entertainment!, it was a big box-office hit and inspired a second compilation two years later. Eighteen years went by...
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Blackout (1978)
Cast: June Allyson John Dunning Ray Milland Robert Carradine Jean-Pierre Aumont
Tags: Crime Thriller Thriller
Length: 89min
In this above-average, exciting Canadian-made action thriller, four psychopaths, led by Christie (Robert Carradine) take over and vandalize a ritzy Manhattan apartment building during the New York power blackout. They move from apartment to apartment,...
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My Man Godfrey (1957)
Cast: David Niven June Allyson Eva Gabor Robert Keith Ross Hunter
Tags: Sophisticated Comedy Comedy of Manners Comedy
Length: 93min
The Depression-New Deal subtext of the original 1936 My Man Godfrey was understandably dispensed with in this so-so 1957 remake. David Niven steps into the old William Powell role as hobo-turned-butler Godfrey, while June Allyson does her best in the...
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They Only Kill Their Masters (1972)
Cast: Hal Holbrook June Allyson James Garner Katharine Ross Peter Lawford
Tags: Drama Mystery Crime Police Detective Film
Length: 97min
A small-town California sheriff attempts to uncover facts behind the killing of a pregnant woman by her Doberman pinscher. James Garner stars in this mystery with performances by June Allyson and Ann Rutherford among others. ~ Kristie Hassen, All...
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You Can't Run Away From It (1956)
Cast: Jack Lemmon June Allyson Dick Powell Jim Backus Howard McNear
Tags: Screwball Comedy
Length: 95min
You Can't Run Away From It is a musical remake of Frank Capra's Oscar-winning classic It Happened One Night, complete with same-named characters and word-for-word scene reconstructions. It all begins when spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (June Allyson)...
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The McConnell Story (1955)
Cast: Alan Ladd June Allyson James Whitmore Gordon M. Douglas John F. Seitz
Tags: Docudrama Biopic War Drama Action Adventure
Length: 107min
Alan Ladd plays real-life air force hero Captain Joseph McConnell Jr. in this inspirational biopic, while June Allyson does her usual as McConnell's anxious, waiting-nervously-at-home wife. Assigned to the medical corps during WWII, McConnell takes...
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Interlude (1957)
Cast: June Allyson Rossano Brazzi Françoise Rosay Bud Westmore Derek Jacobi
Tags: Drama
Length: 90min
Like many of his best works, filmmaker Douglas Sirk's Interlude is a remake of an earlier Universal soap opera. In this case, Sirk's source material is the 1939 Irene Dunne-Charles Boyer vehicle When Tomorrow Comes. Based on a story by (of all people)...
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The Opposite Sex (1956)
Cast: June Allyson Ann Miller Sammy Cahn Jim Backus Agnes Moorehead
Tags: Satire Comedy Musical Romance
Length: 115min
The Opposite Sex is an opulent musical remake of Clare Booth Luce's The Women (1939). June Allyson stars in the old Norma Shearer role, playing the virtuous wife who loses her husband to scheming Joan Collins (as the Joan Crawford character). At first...
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June Allyson

Biography: June Allyson

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