June Havoc

Infobox actor
name = June Havoc


imagesize = 150px
caption = from the trailer for the film "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947)
birthdate = Birth date and age|1913|11|8|mf=y
birthplace = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
deathdate =
deathplace =
birthname = Ellen June Hovick
academyawards =

June Havoc (born November 8, 1913 [ [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5686 Historylink.org] ] ) is an American actress, dancer, writer, and theater director. She was born Ellen Evangeline Hovick in Vancouver, British Columbia. Some sources indicate that her birth name was Ellen June Hovick. She was actually born in 1913, rather than 1916, which is usually cited as her year of birth.

June Havoc was a child vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother. She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood, and stage directed (both on and off-Broadway). She last appeared on television in 1990, on "General Hospital". She resides in Wilton, Connecticut. [ [http://www.towngreenmedia.com/wilton/articles/print.asp?id=3590] "Wilton Collects...Skip Heydt Delights in His Microcosmic World," by Nancy Maar, article in Wilton Magazine, Winter/Spring 2004; accessed on July 3, 2006]

Early life and career

June Havoc's show business career began in her early childhood as "Baby June." [cite news
first=Alvin
last=Klein
url=http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=990CE3DA1739F936A35750C0A963958260&oref=slogin
title=June Havoc, Off Stage
work=New York Times
date=1995-03-05
accessdate=2006-05-09 ] Her older sister, Rose Louise Hovick, best known as Gypsy Rose Lee, was known as Louise to her family. Their mother was Rose Thompson Hovick and their father was John Olaf Hovick, a newspaper advertising man.

Following their parents' divorce, the two sisters earned the family's money by appearing in vaudeville, where June's talent shone while Louise stood in the background. June, in 1929, planned to elope with Bobby Reed, a boy in the act. Rose had Bobby arrested and he was met at the police station by Rose, carrying a hidden gun. She pulled the trigger, but the safety was on and Bobby was freed. June left the act and married Bobby. According to June's two autobiographical books "Early Havoc" and "More Havoc," the marriage didn't last, but the two remained on friendly terms whenever they bumped into each other. By 17, she had an affair with an older married man, Jamie Smythe, who was a big-time marathon promoter. He fathered her only child, April Reed (born in the early 1930s). Louise gravitated to burlesque, taking the name Gypsy Rose Lee.

June, adopting the name June Havoc, got her first acting break on Broadway in Sigmund Romberg's "Forbidden Melody" in 1936. She would later star in Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey", and moved on to Hollywood roles in such movies as "Gentleman's Agreement".

She married for a second time, in 1935 to Donald S. Gibbs, and a third time, in 1949, to William Spier.

June and Gypsy continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a lesbian boardinghouse in a ten-room apartment on West End Avenue, in New York City, the property rented for her by Gypsy, and a farm in Highland Mills, New York. Rose shot and killed one of her guests (who, according to Erik Preminger, Gypsy's son, was Rose's lover who had made a pass at Gypsy). The incident was explained away as a suicide and Rose was not prosecuted. [cite news
first=Laura
last=Jacobs
title=Taking It All Off
work=Vanity Fair
date=March 2003 ]

Rose died in 1954 of colon cancer. The sisters then were free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Gypsy's memoirs, titled "Gypsy", were published in 1957, and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents classic Broadway musical "". June did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but was eventually persuaded not to oppose it, for her sister's sake. The play also sparked such famous songs as "Small World", "Together Wherever We Go", and "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. Gypsy Rose Lee died of cancer in 1970. June wrote two memoirs, "Early Havoc" and "More Havoc". She also wrote a play, "Marathon '33" based on her memoirs, "Early Havoc"; the play starred Julie Harris and had a brief run on Broadway.

Honors

June Havoc was nominated for a Tony Award for best director in 1964, for "Marathon '33", which she also wrote. The June Havoc Theatre, housed at the Abingdon Theatre in New York, was named for her in 2003. [cite web
title=Abingdon Theatre Company, June Havoc Theatre
work=NYC Music Spaces
url=http://www.nycmusicplaces.org/space_detail.php?id=782&term=&type=nl
accessdate=2006-05-09] [cite news
author=Entertainment editors
url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2003_Nov_3/ai_109577811
title=Actress-Director-Playwright June Havoc Honored by Abingdon Theatre Company with Naming of Theatre Tonight
work=Business Wire
date=2003-11-03
accessdate=2006-05-09 ]

Filmography

Features:
* "Four Jacks and a Jill" (1942)
* "Sing Your Worries Away" (1942)
* "Powder Town" (1942)
* "My Sister Eileen" (1942)
* "Hello, Frisco, Hello" (1943)
* "No Time for Love" (1943)
* "Hi Diddle Diddle" (1943)
* "Timber Queen" (1944)
* "Casanova in Burlesque" (1944)
* "Brewster's Millions" (1945)
* "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947)
* "Intrigue" (1947)
* "The Iron Curtain" (1948)
* "When My Baby Smiles at Me" (1948)
* "Chicago Deadline" (1949)
* "Red, Hot and Blue" (1949)
* "The Story of Molly X" (1949)
* "Mother Didn't Tell Me" (1950)
* "Once a Thief" (1950)
* "Follow the Sun" (1951)
* "Lady Possessed" (1952)
* "Three for Jamie Dawn" (1956)
* "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover" (1977)
* "Can't Stop the Music" (1980)
* "A Return to Salem's Lot" (1987)
* "" (2003) (documentary)

Short Subjects:
* "Hey There!" (1918)
* "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6" (1942)

Television Work

* "Willy" (1954 – 1955)
* "What's My Line?" January 18, 1953 Mystery Guest
* "Mr. Broadway" (1957)
* "The Untouchables - The Larry Fay Story" (1960)
* "The June Havoc Show" (1964) (canceled after a few weeks)
* "The Boy Who Stole the Elephant" (1970)
* "Nightside" (1973)
* "Search for Tomorrow" (cast member in 1986)
* "General Hospital" (cast member in 1990)

References

External links

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