June Travis (August 7, 1914 – April 14, 2008) was an American film actress.

Background

Born as June Dorothea Grabiner, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner, vice-president of the Chicago White Sox in the 1930s.

She had dark brown hair and green eyes. She stood 5'4" tall. She attended Parkside Grammar School in Chicago and the Starrett School for Girls. She later studied at UCLA. When she returned to Illinois, she matriculated at the University of Chicago.

Marriage

On January 3, 1940, Travis married Fred Friedlob (1940–1979; his death). 

They had two daughters, Cathy and June.

Friedlob died in May 1979 in Chicago.

Screen actress

A Paramount Pictures vice-president noticed her in Miami, Florida, at a White Sox exhibition game. He offered Travis a screen test when she came to Pasadena, California, where the major league baseball team trained. The first time she was presented with a screen contract, she suffered from screen fright and turned it down. She returned to Chicago and school and the next winter, accepted a film studio offer in Palm Springs, California.

Travis made her screen debut in Stranded (1935), a film which starred Kay Francis and George Brent. She played the role of Mary Rand. She followed this with a part in Not On Your Life (1935), with Warren William and Claire Dodd. Howard Hawks directed her in Ceiling Zero (1936), a Warner Bros. feature. In preparation for her role, Travis learned flying, navigation, and parachute jumping from Amelia Earhart. The aviator gave her instructions in September 1935, including the film stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. Also in 1936, she portrayed secretary Della Street to Perry Mason as played by Ricardo Cortez in The Case of the Black Cat.

She was Ronald Reagan's leading lady in his first movie, Love Is on the Air, in 1937.

Her most notable film role was likely in The Star(1952) starring Bette Davis.

Travis became known as the Queen of the B-movies on the Warner Bros. lot. Later, she said that if she had remained in Hollywood two more years, she would have been a star.[3] However, following three years, she came home to Chicago for Christmas with her parents. She did not return to making motion pictures. Travis stopped regularly appearing in films after 1938, though she made minor appearances in The Star and Monster a Go-Go.

Radio

Travis played Stormy Wilson Curtis in the radio soap opera Girl Alone and Bernice in Arnold Grimm's Daughter, another soap opera.

Stage actress

By the late 1970s, Travis was performing on stage. She admitted that the transition from acting on film was a difficult one.

Death

On April 14, 2008, Travis, age 93, died in a hospital of complications from a stroke she suffered weeks earlier. She is buried in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery.

Filmography

• Stranded (1935) with Kay Francis and George Brent
• Don't Bet on Blondes (1935) with Warren William and Guy Kibbee
• Broadway Gondolier (1935) with Dick Powell and Joan Blondell
• Bright Lights (1935) with Joe E. Brown
• The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) with Warren William and Genevieve Tobin
• Shipmates Forever (1935) with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler
• Dr. Socrates (1935) with Paul Muni
• Broadway Hostess (1935)
• Ceiling Zero (1936) with James Cagney
• Times Square Playboy (1936) with Warren William
• Earthworm Tractors (1936) with Joe E. Brown
• Bengal Tiger (1936) with Barton MacLane
• Jailbreak (1936) with Barton Maclaneand Craig Reynolds
• The Big Game (1936) with Philip Huston and James Gleason
• The Case of the Black Cat (1936) with Ricardo Cortez
• Join the Marines (1937) with Paul Kelly
• Circus Girl (1937) with Robert Livingstonand Donald Cook
• Men in Exile (1937) with Dick Purcell
• Love Is on the Air (1937) with Ronald Reagan
• Over the Goal (1937) with William Hopper and Johnnie Davis
• Exiled to Shanghai (1937) with Wallace Ford and Dean Jagger
• The Night Hawk (1938) with Robert Livingston
• The Kid Comes Back (1938) with Wayne Morris
• Over the Wall (1938) with Dick Foran
• Go Chase Yourself (1938) with Joe Penner and Lucille Ball
• The Marines Are Here (1938) with Gordon Oliver
• The Gladiator (1938) with Joe E. Brown
• Mr. Doodle Kicks Off (1938) with Joe Penner
• The Night Hawk (1938) with Robert Livingston
• Little Orphan Annie (1938) with Ann Gillis
• Federal Man-Hunt (1938) with Robert Livingston
• The Star (1952) with Bette Davis
• Monster A Go-Go (1965) with Paul Morton