barbara billingsley Barbara Billingsley Dies at 94

Barbara Billingsley, most common as Allow Beaver's picture-perfect matriarch June Cleaver, has died. She was 94.

Billingsley died early Saturday at her Santa Monica, Calif., home, family spokeswoman Judy Twersky said. The actress had dealt with a rheumatoid disease.

"Now i am deeply saddened by the losing of my dear friend and lifetime mentor Barbara Billingsley. Might are now living the hearts of her fans becoming wonderful actress and become remembered by her friends in the form of gracious lady," Beaver co-star Jerry Mathers, who played Billingsley's mischievous son, Theodore "Beaver," told TMZ. "Might be deeply missed by almost all her family, friends, fans many especially by me."

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An ancient fashion model, Billingsley started acting in the 1940s, appearing in such films as Three Guys Named Mike, Invaders from Mars and so the Careless Years. She made her TV debut in a very 1952 episode for this Abbott and Costello Show and later appeared by the Lone Wolf, City Detective and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.

But Billingsley didn't develop into a star until 1957 when she signed to have fun playing the quintessential TV mom, June Cleaver, on CBS' family sitcom Hand it over to Beaver, alongside Mathers, Hugh Beaumont and Tony Dow. CBS canceled the series after one season due to poor ratings. The show then gone after ABC, where it remained for five more years, achieving iconic status due to the portrayal of an idealized American family in suburbia.

Impeccably dressed with her trademark pearls and high heel slides, stay-at-home mom June was dutifully dedicated to her husband, Ward (Beaumont), and regularly dispensed advice to her sons, "Beaver" and Wally (Dow).

"Barbara was a patient advisor and teacher," Mathers said. "She helped me along this challenging journey through life by showing me the significance of manners, and respect for others."

Typecast as the perfect mother, Billingsley took a prospect from acting marriage ceremony show ended. She poked fun her wholesome image in the 1980 satire Airplane!, playing a passenger who could speak jive.

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Billingsley subsequently starred in the 1983 Beaver reunion TV movie, Still the Beaver, and the revival series, The New Leave It to Beaver, which lasted four seasons. In the 1997 film version of Beaver, Billingsley played Aunt Martha. Other credits include Mork & Mindy, Roseanne, Empty Nest and Muppet Babies, on which she voiced Nanny and The Little Train.

Billingsley was married three times, and her last husband died in 1981. She is survived by two sons, three stepchildren and several grandchildren.

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