December 22, 1915 – October 16, 2010
With all due respect to Florence Henderson, the list of candidates that can truly be considered “America’s TV Mom” starts and ends with one name: June Cleaver.
Barbara Billingsley spent most of the first 20 years of her career paying her dues in walk-on movie roles and supporting character turns before she landed the biggest role of her life. At the age of 41, Billingsley was cast as the idyllic mom and housewife on the television sitcom, Leave it to Beaver. Though the show struggled a bit on its original CBS outing, it was picked up by ABC and became a hit. Not just a hit, but an all-time classic American sitcom. The show ran for 6 years and over 230 episodes before being canceled so that the cast could move on to other projects. It aired almost constantly in syndication for decades.
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