June Havoc
Acting
Born November 8, 1912, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
June Havoc (born Ellen June Evangeline Hovick), was a Canadian American actress, dancer, writer, and stage director. Havoc was a child vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother Rose Thompson Hovick. She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood, and stage-directed, both on and off-Broadway. She last appeared on television in 1990 in a story arc on the soap opera General Hospital. Her elder sister Louise gravitated to burlesque and became the well-known striptease performer Gypsy Rose Lee. Following their parents' divorce, the two sisters earned the family's income by appearing in vaudeville, where June's talent often overshadowed Louise's. Baby June got an audition with Alexander Pantages, who had come to Seattle, Washington in 1902 to build theaters up and down the west coast of the United States. Soon, she was launched in vaudeville and also appeared in Hollywood movies. She could not speak until the age of three, but the films were all silent. She would cry for the cameras when her mother told her that the family's dog had died. In December 1928, Havoc, in an effort to escape her overbearing mother, eloped with Bobby Reed, a boy in the vaudeville act. Weeks later after performing at the Jayhawk Theatre in Topeka, Kansas, Rose reported Reed to the Topeka Police, and he was arrested. Rose had a concealed gun on her when she met Bobby at the police station. She pulled the trigger, but the safety was on. She then physically attacked her soon-to-be new son-in-law, and the police had to pry her off the hapless Reed. June soon married him, leaving both her family and the act. The marriage did not last, but the two remained on friendly terms. June's only child was a daughter, born April Rose Hyde. A marriage license, dated November 30, 1928 for Ellen Hovick and Weldon Hyde, would seem to indicate that Bobby Reed's real name was Weldon Hyde. April became an actress in the 1950s known as April Kent. She predeceased her mother, dying in Paris in 1998.
Filmography
- 1987A Return to Salem's Lot — Aunt Clara
- Murder, She Wrote — Thelma Vantay, Lady Abigail Austin
- 1980Can't Stop the Music — Helen Morell
- 1977The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover — Hoover's Mother
- 1973Nightside — Vantura Davis
- McMillan & Wife
- 1970The Boy Who Stole the Elephant — Molly Jeffrys
- Burke's Law — Miranda Forsythe
- The Outer Limits — Karen Thorne
- 1957Mr. Broadway — Trixie Friganza
- Panic!
- 1956Three for Jamie Dawn — Lorrie Delacourt
- Matinee Theater
- Willy — Wilma 'Willy' Dodger
- General Electric Theater — Margo
- 1952Lady Possessed — Jean Wilson
- 1951Follow the Sun — Norma
- Lux Video Theatre — Millie
- 1950Mother Didn't Tell Me — Maggie Roberts
- 1950Once a Thief — Margie Foster
- Robert Montgomery Presents — Betty MacDonald, Linda Duffield, Crystal Davis
- 1949Chicago Deadline — Leona
- 1949Red, Hot and Blue — Sandra
- 1949The Story of Molly X — Molly X
- Studio One — Kitty Sharpe
- 1948The Iron Curtain — Nina Karanova
- 1948When My Baby Smiles at Me — Gussie Evans
- 1947Gentleman's Agreement — Elaine Wales
- 1947Intrigue — Mme. Tamara Baranoff
- 1945Brewster's Millions — Trixie Summers
- 1944Casanova in Burlesque — Lillian Colman
- 1944Timber Queen — Lil Boggs
- 1943Hello, Frisco, Hello — Beulah Clancy
- 1943Hi Diddle Diddle — Leslie Quayle
- 1943No Time for Love — Darlene
- 1942Four Jacks and a Jill — Opal
- 1942Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood No. 6
- 1942My Sister Eileen — Effie Shelton
- 1942Powder Town — Dolly Smythe
- 1942Sing Your Worries Away — Roxey Rochelle
- 1918Hey There — Child
- 1918On the Jump — Child
Appearances as themselves (8)
- 2003Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There — Self
- 1997Vaudeville — Self
- 1980Magic Night — Self
- Great Performances — Self
- The Merv Griffin Show — Self
- The Mike Douglas Show — Self
- The Colgate Comedy Hour — Self
- What's My Line? — Self