June Havoc, Vaudeville Star, Is Dead at 97

June Havoc, who appeared on vaudeville stages when she was 2 as Baby June and went on to a successful acting career — but saw her accomplishments overshadowed by the fictionalized portrayal of her in the 1959 musical “Gypsy” — died on Sunday at her home in Stamford, Conn. She was believed to be 97. The death was confirmed by her caregiver, Tana Sibilio.

Ellen Evangeline Hovick was born on Nov. 8, 1912, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Or so Ms. Havoc concluded. Her mother reportedly carried five birth certificates for her younger daughter, to satisfy the child labor laws of every state, so June wasn’t sure exactly how old she was.

Her parents — Rose Thompson Hovick, depicted as the indomitable Momma Rose in “Gypsy,” and John Olav Hovick — separated when June was only a baby.


In “Gypsy” — whose book, by Arthur Laurents, was based on a memoir by her sister, the strip-tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee — the adorable, pampered June (by then known as Dainty June, having outgrown the baby billing) quits show business to elope with one of the boys in her act and is never heard from again. In real life, not long after her sister gained burlesque fame in the 1930s, Ms. Havoc established a solid career on Broadway and in Hollywood films.
She did not have an easy time of it at first. The little girl who had earned as much as $1,500 a week on the vaudeville stage — when the average American worker earned roughly that much annually — spent her teenage years on the edge of destitution.

Her marriage to Bobby Reed (who had indeed been a performer in her stage act) did not last long, but the two stayed together professionally out of necessity. To keep body and soul together during the Depression, they went on the grueling dance marathon circuit, dancing thousands of hours just to get the free meals provided to contestants. Because they were so young, they posed as brother and sister.
Ms. Havoc worked on Broadway. Her star-making Broadway role was as the scheming chorus girl Gladys Bumps in the original 1940 production of “Pal Joey.” Her best-received film performance was in “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), in which she played Gregory Peck’s self-hating Jewish secretary, who passes for gentile.

Most of Ms. Havoc’s film work was in supporting roles, often as the heroine’s wisecracking pal or a major male character’s wife. Her movies included the original “My Sister Eileen” (1942) and “When My Baby Smiles at Me” (194. But occasionally she was the leading lady, as in the crime drama “Intrigue” (1947), with George Raft, and “Lady Possessed” (1952), a romantic thriller with James Mason.

Onstage she often had her name in lights. In addition to being in “Pal Joey,” she had the title role in the melodrama “That Ryan Girl” (1945), replaced Ethel Merman in “Sadie Thompson” (1944) and played the society hostess in a revival of “Dinner at Eight” (1966). She received a Drama Desk Award nomination for her role as a housekeeper in the 1975 farce “Habeas Corpus” and a Tony Award nomination for directing “Marathon 33” (1963), a play based on her memoir about the marathon dance era. In 1982 she took over the role of the evil Miss Hannigan in the original Broadway production of “Annie.” It was her final Broadway appearance.

Her final film role was in “A Return to Salem’s Lot” (1987), about a New England town filled with vampires. Her final screen appearances were on television, in several episodes of the daytime drama “General Hospital” in 1990.

Over the years Ms. Havoc tended to be diplomatic when speaking of her mother and her sister. But in a 2003 interview with Alex Witchel of The New York Times, she was particularly straightforward:

“My sister was beautiful and clever — and ruthless. My mother was endearing and adorable — and lethal. They were the same person. I was the fool of the family. The one who thought I really was loved for me, for myself.”