RIP June
 

For all the older folks that grew up watching.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/cele...ex.html?hpt=T2

Barbara Billingsley of 'Leave it to Beaver' fame dies
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Actress Barbara Billingsley dies at home at age 94
* She is best known for her role as June Cleaver
* A private memorial is being planned

RELATED TOPICS

* Celebrity News

(CNN) -- Barbara Billingsley, who wore a classy pearl necklace and dispensed pearls of wisdom as America's quintessential mom on "Leave it to Beaver," has died at age 94, a family spokeswoman said Saturday.

The actress passed away at 2 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) Saturday at her home in Santa Monica, California, after a long illness, spokeswoman Judy Twersky said. A private memorial is being planned.

"She was as happy as a lark being recognized as America's mom," actor Tony Dow, who played Wally Cleaver, told CNN. "She had a terrific life and had a wonderful impact on everybody she knew, and even people she didn't know."

Actor Jerry Mathers, who played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, spoke of Billingsley's talent during a 2000 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"Barbara was always a true role model for me. She was a great actress," he said. "And in a lot of ways ... we kind of stifled her, because her true talent didn't really come out in 'Leave it Beaver.' She was like the straight man, but she has an awful lot of talent."

The actress won a new legion of fans in a brief, but memorable scene in the 1980 send-up movie "Airplane."

"Oh, stewardess. I speak jive," Billingsley said in her role as a passenger comforting an ill man on the flight.

From the moment its catchy theme song sounded in black-and-white TV sets of the 1950s, "Leave it to Beaver" enthralled Americans during a time of relative prosperity and world peace. Its characters represented middle-class white America.

June Cleaver dutifully pecked her husband, Ward (played by the late Hugh Beaumont), when he came home to learn about the latest foibles -- nothing serious -- committed by Beaver and Wally.

The parents would dispense moralistic advice to their sons. The boys' friends included Lumpy and the obsequious Eddie Haskell, who avoided trouble and often buttered up Ward and June.

"That's a lovely dress you're wearing, Mrs. Cleaver," Eddie would typically say to Billingsley's character.

Perhaps fittingly, "Leave it to Beaver" was canceled in 1963 on the eve of the JFK assassination, the Vietnam War and the tumult of the 1960s.

In the 1980s, Dow appeared with Billingsley in "The New Leave it to Beaver." She shifted from being a mom figure to a good friend who supported his directing and artistic endeavors, Dow said.

"She always had a positive thing to say," said Dow, 65.

Born December 22, 1915, in Los Angeles, Billingsley began her career as a model in New York City in 1936.

She was under contract to MGM in 1945 before becoming a household name with the launch of "Leave it to Beaver" in 1957.

Billingsley is related by marriage to actor/producer Peter Billingsley, known for his starring role as Ralphie in the seasonal TV-movie classic "A Christmas Story," according to the Internet Movie Database. Peter Billingsley's mother, Gail Billingsley, is the cousin of Barbara's first husband, Glenn.

Billingsley, whose second and third husbands predeceased her, is survived by her two sons, Drew Billingsley of Granada Hills, California, and Glenn Billingsley of Phillips Ranch, California.

Asked once to compare real-life families to TV families, Billingsley responded, "I just wish that we could have more families like those. Family is so important, and I just don't think we have enough people staying home with their babies and their children."

The woman who inspired a generation of husbands to give their wives pearl necklaces.

Rest in peace, mama beaver.

You lived life your way and Ward was never the wiser.

FAX

Ward, dont you think you were a little rough on the Beaver last night?

"Now Ward, be kind to the Beaver".



And my own mortality passes in front of me again.

"Ward, the Beaver's bleeding like a sumbitch."

???

I don't think that was one ...

FAX

I like the reruns of LITB's first couple of years, corny as they may be. when Beaver started shaving the show jumped the shark. But through it all BB was a great mama. RIP Babs.
http://www.toomanymornings.com/wp-co...er-238x300.jpg

Sucka don't want no help, sucka don't get no help.

Should that be in the 'strange facts' thread?

Actually, do something with her hair and she would have been kinda hot. Ward was a lucky dude.

FAX

I gave up on my "Strange Facts By FAX" thread, Mr. Frankie. Nobody liked my facts. Everybody was like, "I don't believe that fact." and like, "What kind of stupid fact is that?" and like, "What happens if you change that fact?".

Another failed thread idea by FAX.

FAX

marking "bang June Cleaver' off my bucket list...

Well, if you hurry, there's still time.

I wonder exactly when 'beaver' became a synonym for female genitalia.

Well, I guess you still could, but that would be even sicker than banging an 90 year old woman.

PREVERT!!!!

awwwwww :(


RIP

What? If you're against the idea, just pretend she's asleep. :shrug:

:D you are a sick person. ;)

don't knock it, the cold keeps you hard for a long,long time

RIP, Mrs. Cleaver...you always saw through eddie's and all the BS, always had cookies made fresh at just the right time...always knew when to take charge of the situation, and kept Ward in check.

just elegant...thanks for the memories.

LMAO
Not to mention they usually don't mind things like Cleveland Steamers or Donkey Punches.
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Loved the show as a kid. I can't help but reminisce over some of the lines that came out of that show. Especially some that at the time were dead serious are now hilarious to our standards today.

Fred Rutherford: Have to keep a firm hand on boys nowadays, Ward. My Clarence answered me back the other day. I smacked him right in the mouth. None of this psychology for me.

Wally Cleaver: Dry up, Beaver.

Cornelia Rayburn: [reading the poem Ward wrote for the Beaver to recite at school] The Bear: I would like to be a bear, gay and happy free from care / That's the life like no other, climbing trees with my mother / Though they call me beast of rage, I've never put anything in a cage / Or set a trap since time's begun, or shot a human with a gun.

[June has prepared a lovely dinner of barbecued pork ribs]
Ward Cleaver: Well, you boys are very quiet tonight. What are you thinking about?
Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: I was just thinkin' what I'd do if I was a pig eatin' peoples ribs.
June Cleaver: Beaver, please.

[Entry in Beaver's diary]
Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: Went to school. Ate lunch. Saw dead cat. Came home.

"Ward Cleaver: It's that friend of Beaver's. You know, the one who always talks like he was just frightened by something.
June Cleaver: Whitey Whitney?
Ward Cleaver: That's it.

Sadly, too late for a guy named Beaver Cleaver to be cool.

I don't think you'd really even have to do much with the hair.

don't know...maybe for a rapper?

now who are we going to get to translate jive?!?!

At first, I thought, "Hmm... The inclusion of the word 'usually' in this phrase is very peculiar." But then I remembered it was in reference to necrophilia of a senior citizen. So I can only assume you've had some instances when you only THOUGHT they were dead, but found out halfway through that they were just asleep and looked dead? :shrug: Let me tell you, if I were old, and took a nap, and woke up with someone giving me a Cleveland Steamer, I'd be mighty perturbed.

Bingo.
But man, it was quite a ride. Given enough adrenaline, an 89 year old woman with parkinson's can really throw you for a loop.
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Not to mention the handjobs! :D

ROFL I had forgotten it was her.