Biografía

The Cleaver clan became the iconic 1950s American nuclear family, and as Mrs. Cleaver she was often seen performing her household duties wearing complementary pearls and earrings. The pearls were actually her idea: she had a noticeable surgical scar on her neck and wore a strand of pearls to conceal it from the cameras.

Her show, Leave It to Beaver (1957), was canceled at the end of the sixth season because her castmates desired to move on to other projects. Also, Tony Dow was graduating from high school and Jerry Mathers was entering high school that year.

Was reunited with her ex-Leave It to Beaver (1957) co-stars, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers, along with ex-¿Y dónde está el piloto? (1980) co-star, Peter Graves, on the final episode of El crucero del amor (1977).

After her second husband Roy Kellino died prematurely of a heart attack in 1956, she married Dr. William Mortensen, a Santa Monica physician and widower who was an old friend of hers and Roy's during their marriage.

She and first husband Glenn Billingsley, a successful restaurateur, had two sons, Drew and Glenn, Jr. Since 1974, Drew and Glenn have owned and operated Billingsley's Restaurant in West Los Angeles, in the tradition of their father, and their great uncle, Sherman Billingsley, founder of New York City's very fashionable 1940s-era nightclub, The Stork Club.

Roy [her husband] died on a Saturday, while we were gardening. The Thursday before, I was up for the part of the mother in a series Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher were working on. Then Roy died, and nothing came of that series. But two months later, when they started on Leave It to Beaver (1957), they remembered me and asked me to read for the part of June. I've always thought that they felt sorry for me.

June Cleaver didn't keep her house in perfect order, the prop man did it.

[asked in 2000 if there was a difference between her and the June Cleaver character] My sons say, no. Gradually what happened is the writers started writing about you, as well as the character they created originally. So you all become mixed up.

[of Jerry Mathers who played "The Beaver"] Jerry told me it had been a dream of his always to be able to go to New York and be in a Broadway show. So all we have to do is decide what we want to do. You have to have a dream.

[about auditioning for June Cleaver] Well, I was doing the script, and I don't think I could have changed it. But I loved it.