June Allyson, the sprightly, petite blond with the disarmingly raspy voice, all of which made her a memorable cinema sweetheart with a difference in the '40s and '50s, died of pulmonary respiratory failure on July 8 at her Ojai, California home. She was 88.

She was born Eleanor Geisman in the Bronx on October 7, 1917. Raised by her divorced mother in impoverished circumstances, she suffered a tragic bicycle accident at age eight and spent years with her leg in a steel brace. Although hampered by the injury, she wanted desperately to become a dancer, and in lieu of physical therapy, she used both dancing and swimming lessons to improve her mobility.

She was still in her early teens when she began working as a chorus girl in some Broadway productions. She earned her big break when, as an understudy to Betty Hutton in the Cole Porter hit Panama Hattie, she performed after Hutton got the measles. Winning raves for her unique singing style and game hoofing, famed producer George Abbott liked what he saw in young Eleanor, changed her name to June Allyson, and cast her in his next Broadway spectacle, Best Foot Forward. The musical was picked up by MGM, and Allyson found herself in Hollywood.

Her first two films with the illustrious studio, Girl Crazy (1943), and Best Foot Forward (1943), showed her quicksilver charm and energy, but it would be her third film and first starring role in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) with that inimitable boy-next-door, Van Johnson, that she established her real star power. For the next five years, Allyson could do not wrong with the material she was given, and teaming her up with fresh faced leading men only solidified her success: Her Highness and the Bellboy with Robert Walker; The Sailor Takes a Wife (both 1945) again with Walker; Two Sisters From Boston (1946) co-starring Peter Lawford; Good News (1947) once more with Lawford; and The Bride Goes Wild (1948), which teamed her up with Johnson again. Also adding to her popularity was her marriage to actor Dick Powell in 1945, which became fodder for film fanzines for many years.

Allyson would eventually prove her versatility when she began to move away from the light romantic comedies and musicals, and steered her career toward drama. Her performance as Jo in Mervyn Leroy's lush presentation of Little Women (1949) was a good first step in this ambition; but it was her take as James Stewart's wife in the baseball picture The Stratton Story that kicked off her career as the loyal spouse of a stalwart male lead: The Glenn Miller Story (1953) opposite Stewart again; Executive Suite (1954) playing support to William Holden; Strategic Air Command (1955) was one more dance with Stewart; and to many fans her best performance, playing against type as Jose Ferrer's shrewish mate in Ferrer's directorial effort The Strike (also 1955).

As wonderfully capable as Allyson could prove herself in both comedy and drama, her career would hit a snag. By the late '50s, her film roles took a sharp decline. She starred in three overproduced movies of earlier classics: The Opposite Sex (1956, a remake of The Women), You Can't Run Away from It (1956, a reconstruct of It Happened One Night), and My Man Godfrey (1957) that were not well received by the critics, and were far from box-office hits. With the screen parts falling away, Allyson, along with her husband Powell, took on live television, and both The DuPont Show with June Allyson and The Dick Powell Show were hits with audiences and critics alike. Sadly, the success of these show was curtailed with Powell's death by cancer in 1963, and Allyson fell into reclusion for several years.

Fortunately, she got back into the swing of things by the early '70s with some early television movies: See the Man Run (1971) and Letters from Three Lovers (1973); one regrettable theatrical film where she plays an embittered homicidal lesbian, They Only Kill Their Masters (1972); and a slew of welcoming guest appearances on some hit programs: The Incredible Hulk, Vega$, Simon & Simon, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1984, Allyson became the spokeswoman for Depend, a line of diaper products for adults with incontinence and her June Allyson Foundation, formed in 1997, raises money for incontinence awareness, research and education. She is survived by her husband of 30 years, David Ashrow; and two children from her marriage to Dick Powell, daughter, Pamela; a son, Richard; and a brother, Arthur.

by Michael T. Toole