June Travis

June Travis

James Cagney and June Travis in Ceiling Zero (1936)
Born June Dorothea Grabiner
(1914-08-07)August 7, 1914
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died April 14, 2008(2008-04-14) (aged 93)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago
Other names June Travis Friedlob
Years active 1935–1965
Spouse(s) Fred Friedlob (1940–1979;his death)

June Travis (August 7, 1914 – April 14, 2008) was an American film actress.

Background

Born as June Dorothea Grabiner, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner, vice-president of the Chicago White Sox in the 1930s.[1]

She had dark brown hair and green eyes.[1] She stood 5'4" tall. She attended Parkside Grammar School in Chicago and later UCLA. When she returned to Illinois she matriculated at the University of Chicago.

Marriage

On January 3, 1940, June married Fred Friedlob. They had two daughters, Cathy and June. Friedlob died in May 1979 in Chicago.

Screen actress

With comedian Joe E. Brown in Earthworm Tractors (1936)

A Paramount Pictures vice-president noticed her in Miami, Florida at a White Sox exhibition game. He offered Travis a screen test when she came to Pasadena, California, where the major league baseball team trained. The first time she was presented with a screen contract, she suffered from screen fright and turned it down. She returned to Chicago and school. The next winter she accepted a film studio offer in Palm Springs, California. Travis made her screen debut in Stranded (1935), a film which starred Kay Francis and George Brent. She played the role of "Mary Rand". She followed this with a part in Not On Your Life (1935), with Warren William and Claire Dodd. Howard Hawks directed her in Ceiling Zero (1936), a Warner Bros. feature. In preparation for her role, Travis learned flying, navigation, and parachute jumping from Amelia Earhart. The aviator gave her instructions in September 1935. The film stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. Also in 1936, she portrayed secretary Della Street to Perry Mason as played by Ricardo Cortez in The Case of the Black Cat.

Travis (second from right) with Pat O'Brien, Martha Tibbetts, James Cagney and Stuart Erwin in Ceiling Zero (1936)

She was Ronald Reagan's leading lady in his first movie, Love Is on the Air, in 1937.

Her most notable film role was likely in The Star (1952) starring Bette Davis.

Travis became known as the Queen of the B-movies on the Warner Bros. lot. Later, she said that if she had remained in Hollywood two more years, she would have been a star. However, following three years, she came home to Chicago for Christmas with her parents. She did not return to making motion pictures. Travis stopped regularly appearing in films after 1938, though she made minor appearances in The Star and Monster a Go-Go.

Radio

Travis played Stormy Wilson Curtis in the radio soap opera Girl Alone[2] and Bernice in Arnold Grimm's Daughter, another soap opera.[3]

Stage actress

By the late 1970s, Travis was performing on stage. She admitted that the transition from acting on film was a difficult one.

Death

Travis died at the age of 93 in 2008 in a hospital of complications from a stroke she suffered weeks earlier. She was buried in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery.[4]

Filmography

References

  1. 1 2 "Say Hello to ..." (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 15 (1): 52. November 1940. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Fairfax, Arthur (December 28, 1940). "Mr. Fairfax Replies" (PDF). Movie Radio Guide. 10 (12): 43. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  3. ↑ Wolf, Tom (October 30, 1941). "Television Promises to Create New Market for 'Etheral' Beauty". The Indiana Gazette. p. 32. Retrieved March 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ June Travis at Find a Grave
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