June Lang

Dreamy June Lang in a 1936 portrait study by photographer Gene Kornman. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Winifred June Vlasek on May 5, 1917, June was encouraged to perform at a young age. Her debut feature film role came in "Young Sinners" (1931) and was again unbilled in Barbara Stanwyck's "The Miracle Woman" (1931) and Janet Gaynor's "Daddy Long Legs" (1931). Billed as June Vlasek at first and seen prominently in such films as "The Man Who Dared" (1933) and "I Loved You Wednesday" (1933), June received the second femme lead role in the plush yet whimsical, operetta-styled "Music in the Air" (1934) top-lining John Boles and Gloria Swanson. June followed this with the Hal Roach-produced Laurel and Hardy comedy "Bonnie Scotland" (1935). She would work again with Hardy in his solo movie effort "Zenobia" (1939). In addition to "The Country Doctor" (1936) and "Ali Baba Goes to Town" (1937), in which she played a beautiful princess, June is perhaps best remembered for her co-starring roles in two Shirley Temple heart-tuggers: "Captain January" (1936), in which she played a schoolteacher, and "Wee Willie Winkie" (1937), in which she portrayed Shirley's widowed mother. Sadly, June's disastrous and ill-conceived 1939 marriage to Chicago mobster Johnny Roselli tarnished her Hollywood reputation. Although she maintained that she was initially naive to her husband's mob-related activities, her career never recovered from such bad press. She made fleeting appearances after that, some of which were unbilled, and ended her movie career passively with the second-string programmers "Three of a Kind" (1944) and "Lighthouse" (1947). She retired in 1947 after struggling to re-establish her film career, although she occasionally appeared in minor roles on television come the 1950s and early 1960s. June passed away shortly after her 88th birthday on May 16, 2005 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Los Angeles.

(www.hollywoodpinups.com)