Barbara Billingsley, who is best remembered as the Mom to Wally and ‘Beaver’ Cleaver in the TV series Leave it to Beaver, was born on December 22, 1915. She was born Barbara Lillian Combes in Los Angeles, California and married her first husband Glenn Billingsley in 1941.
She divorced Glenn in 1947 after 6 years of marriage. Although she remarried in 1953, to Roy Kellino, she used Barbara Billingsley professionally. Kellino died in 1956 and she remarried again in 1959 to William Mortensen, a Santa Monica physician. They were married until his death in 1981.
Prior to winning the role of June Cleaver, Billingsley appeared in a few movies and TV show, mostly in small parts. Some of them uncredited.
After her role in Leave it to Beaver, she found it hard to get any other acting roles. She did appear as the ‘Jive talking’ passenger in the movie Airplane!. She also appeared in the New Leave it to Beaver playing the widowed Mom to the adult Beaver.
Barbara Billingsley is not directly related to Peter Billingsley, the boy Ralphie in A Christmas Story. Peter Billingsley is son of Gail Billingsley who is a cousin to her first husband Glenn Billingsley. She divorce Glenn in 1947 after 5 years of marriage.
Now in her 90’s she is living in Los Angeles. She will forever be the Mom of the Beaver and the mom that many people wish was their own.
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