June Walker

Walker was born in New York City on June 14, 1900, and was orphaned when she was 14. She worked as a millinery clerk before becoming an actress.

File:Green-Grow-the-Lilacs-1931.jpg and Franchot Tone in the 1931 Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs]]

Walker performed as a member of the chorus of a Globe Theater production of Hitchy-Koo when she was 16 years old.

She appeared on Broadway in such plays as Green Grow the Lilacs, The Farmer Takes a Wife, and Twelfth Night.{{cite web |title=June Walker |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/june-walker-63802 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |accessdate=November 6, 2020 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20201106012822/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/june-walker-63802 |archivedate=November 6, 2020 |url-status=live }} She was the first actress to portray the character of Lorelei Lee, in the 1926 Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her obituary in The New York Times said the role "was as much her creation as that of Anita Loos who wrote the book that became the comedy ..." The success of the play launched Walker's career, and she had further Broadway successes. She played Linda Loman to Thomas Mitchell's Willy in the 1949 touring company of Death of a Salesman and also toured, performing in the role of Vinnie, in Life with Father.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

For four weeks in 1924 Walker appeared as the Leading Lady in the Summer Stock cast at Elitch Theatre. She appeared in: The Changelings, by Lee Wilson Dood; Rolling Home, by John Hunter Booth; The New Poor, by Cosmo Hamilton; and Across the Street, by Richard A. Purdy.{{Cite web |title=1924 – Historic Elitch Theatre |url=https://hetden.org/year1924/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=hetden.org}}{{cite thesis |last=Levy |first=Edwin Lewis |date=1960 |title=Elitch's Gardens, Denver, Colorado: A History of the Oldest Summer Theatre in the United States (1890 - 1941) |publisher=Columbia University}}

Walker acted in silent films for Essanay Studios and in sound films, including A Child Is Waiting, Through Different Eyes, The Unforgiven, and War Nurse.{{cite book |last1=Willis |first1=John |title=Screen World 1967 |date=June 1983 |publisher=Biblo & Tannen Publishers |isbn=978-0-8196-0308-1 |page=240 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TjZKjHXEj-YC&q=%22June+Walker%22+actress&pg=PA240 |accessdate=November 6, 2020 |language=en}}

In 1926, she married British actor Geoffrey Kerr. The couple divorced in 1943; their son was actor John Kerr.{{cite book|last1=McFarlane|first1=Brian|title=The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9781526111968|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V7vPDQAAQBAJ&q=%22June+Walker%22+actress&pg=PA1989-IA19|accessdate=7 March 2017|language=en}} She appeared with her son in a 1954 episode of NBC's Justice. It was his first acting engagement.{{Citation needed |date=November 2020}}

On February 3, 1966, aged 65, Walker died of undisclosed causes at her son's home in Los Angeles.{{cite news |title=June Walker, 65, first Lorelei Lee |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/117232727 |accessdate=November 5, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=February 5, 1966 |page=29|id={{ProQuest|117232727}} }} She was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.{{Citation needed |date=November 2020}}

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{{Commons category|June Walker}}

• {{IMDb name|0907913}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{Find a Grave|10917952}}
• [https://historicelitchtheatre.org/june-walker/ June Walker] at Historic Elitch Theatre

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Category:1900 births

Category:1966 deaths

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American film actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Actresses from Chicago

Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:20th-century American singers

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