June Allyson, the stage, film and television actress best known for her girl-next-door charm and winsomely husky voice in such 1940s MGM classics as "Good News" and "Little Women," has died at age 88, her husband said on Monday.
Allyson, who had been in declining health since undergoing hip-replacement surgery a few years ago, died on Saturday at her home in
Born Ella Geisman in the Bronx,
Allyson made her feature film debut in the 1943 big-screen version of the Broadway musical "Best Foot Forward," reprising the ingenue role she played two years earlier on stage in a production choreographed by Gene Kelly.
She won a Golden Globe Award for her 1951 role in "Too Young to Kiss," where she played a talented pianist who poses as a child prodigy to gain an audition for a music impresario who is holding tryouts for a kids' concert tour.
As the 1950s wore on, Allyson grew into roles as the supportive wife in such films as "The Glenn Miller Story" and "Strategic Air Command."
Although ranked as one of the ten leading box office stars in the mid-1950s, her Hollywood career waned at the end of that decade and she moved into television, starring in her own drama anthology series, "The June Allyson Show," which ran from 1959 to 1961.
She returned to Broadway in 1970 to succeed Julie Harris as star of "40 Carats," her first stage role in two decades, and continued to make occasional TV and film appearances through the 1990s.
Allyson also headlined a national tour of the stage musical "No, No Nanette" in the 1970s. (Source: Reuters)
