June Lang
Encyclopedia
Early life
Born Winifred June Vlasek in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
(parents: Edith and Clarence Vlasek), she originally trained as a dancer in "kiddie reviews" and went to Hollywood at the urging of her mother.
Career
She made her film debut in 1931 and caught the eye of Darryl F. ZanuckDarryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
at 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, gradually securing second lead roles in mostly B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s. Noted for her fragile and demure appearance, she was usually cast as the little sister or the heroine's best friend in light comedies and adventure films. She soon graduated to leading roles, most notably in Bonnie Scotland
Bonnie Scotland
Bonnie Scotland is a 1935 American film starring Laurel and Hardy, produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios and directed by James W. Horne...
(with Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
, 1935), in The Road to Glory (with Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
and Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
—written in part by William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
—1936), and in Wee Willie Winkie
Wee Willie Winkie (film)
Wee Willie Winkie is a 1937 American adventure film directed by John Ford. The screenplay by Julien Josephson and Ernest Pascal was based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. The film stars Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, and Cesar Romero in a story about the British presence in nineteenth century...
(directed by John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, with Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
, Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
, and Victor McLaglen
Victor McLaglen
Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor.Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.-Early life:...
, 1937).
Personal life
June Lang first married her agent, Victor OrsattiVictor Orsatti
Victor Orsatti Victor Orsatti Victor Orsatti (November 25, 1905 Los Angeles, California – June 9, 1984 Newport Beach, California, Hollywood talent agent and film producer...
, in 1937 (divorced 1938), but her reputation as a wholesome leading lady was tarnished when she married Johnny Roselli, a reputed mobster, April 1, 1940 (divorced March 1943). Her studio released her from her contract the same year, and although she divorced Roselli, she found it difficult to secure film work. She married John Morgan in 1946 (divorced 1952), with whom she had a daughter.
She retired in 1947 after struggling to reestablish her film career for several years, although she occasionally appeared in minor roles on TV.
Lang died just 11 days past her 88th birthday in Valley Village, California. She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Selected filmography
- Music in the AirMusic in the Air (film)Music in the Air is a 1934 romantic comedy musical film based on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical of the same name. It stars Gloria Swanson as a opera diva, John Boles as her librettist and Douglass Montgomery as an aspiring songwriter who stumbles into their stormy...
(1934) - Bonnie ScotlandBonnie ScotlandBonnie Scotland is a 1935 American film starring Laurel and Hardy, produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios and directed by James W. Horne...
(1935) - The Road to Glory (1936)
- Wee Willie WinkieWee Willie Winkie (film)Wee Willie Winkie is a 1937 American adventure film directed by John Ford. The screenplay by Julien Josephson and Ernest Pascal was based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. The film stars Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, and Cesar Romero in a story about the British presence in nineteenth century...
(1937) - International SettlementInternational Settlement (film)International Settlement is a 1938 American drama film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Dolores del Rio, George Sanders and June Lang. It is set in the Shanghai International Settlement during the Sino-Japanese War...
(1938)