June Edna Fairchild (born June Edna Wilson; September 3, 1946 – February 17, 2015) was an American dancer and actress. Fairchild starred or co-starred in more than a dozen film roles before her addictions to drugs and alcohol effectively ended her professional acting career.
June Fairchild | |
|---|---|
 Fairchild in 1970 | |
| Born | June Edna Wilson September 3, 1946 |
| Died | February 17, 2015 (aged 68) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | El Camino College |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1966–1978 |
Life
editFairchild was born June Edna Wilson on September 3, 1946,[1] in Manhattan Beach, California.[2] Her father was a musician who specialized in writing gospel songs and music.[1] Fairchild was raised in Manhattan Beach and graduated in 1964 from Aviation High School in Redondo Beach.[1] She attended El Camino College and acted the youthful role of Arthur in the college production of Shakespeare'sThe Life and Death of King John in April 1965.[3][4][5]
Gazzarri Dancer on Hollywood A Go-Go
editBy mid-1965 Fairchild had been hired as a member of the Gazzarri Dancers on the syndicated variety show Hollywood A Go-Go after being recruited by the show's executive producer Al Burton. She remained on the show until its final episode, broadcast in February 1966.[1][5]
While on the show, June Fairchild and fellow dancer Mimi Machu created the Statue dance, a fad dance in which the dancers adopt stationary poses for a measure or two before shifting to new poses. The dance was performed on a number of episodes, including the one broadcast on November 6, 1965, in which Tommy Sands performed his record "The Statue", a song about the dance. Host Sam Riddle's introduction acknowledged Fairchild and Machu as the originators of the Statue dance, which had already spread to some public dance venues.[5]
Years of success
edit
During the 1960s, Fairchild lived with her then-boyfriend Danny Hutton, the lead singer of Three Dog Night, for several years.[1] Despite some disagreement about the veracity of the claim,[6] Fairchild was credited with conceiving the band's name, Three Dog Night.[1]
Fairchild co-starred in Head, a vehicle for The Monkees, in 1968; in Drive, He Said, directed by Jack Nicholson; and Pretty Maids All in a Row, directed by Roger Vadim, in 1971; in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which starred Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, in 1974; and in the 1978 Cheech & Chong film, Up in Smoke, in which she appeared as a drug addict who snorts Ajax soap powder.[1]
Decline
editIn her later life Fairchild lived on the streets of Skid Row, Los Angeles due to her addictions.[1]
In 2001, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times ran a story about Fairchild's past career in Hollywood and her present life on the streets of Los Angeles.[7] Fairchild was selling newspapers outside a Los Angeles courthouse at the time in an attempt to earn enough money for a single-room occupancy hotel room.[1] On February 21, 2001, the same day that her story was published in the Los Angeles Times, police stopped her in Van Nuys for carrying an open container. A police officer recognized her picture from the newspaper and arrested her for failure to complete her community service from a past drunk driving conviction. Fairchild was sentenced to 90 days.[1] In 2002, Fairchild told the Los Angeles Times that her sentence had triggered a pledge of sobriety.[1] Friends told reporters that Fairchild remained sober until her death in 2015.[1]
She spent the later years of her life living in single-room hotels in downtown Los Angeles using her Social Security disability payments.[1]
Death
editShe died from liver cancer at a convalescent home in Los Angeles on February 17, 2015, at the age of 68. She had been divorced twice.[1]
Partial filmography
edit- Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968) - June[8]
- Head (1968) - The Jumper
- Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) - Sonny
- Drive, He Said (1971) - Sylvie[1]
- Summertree (1971) - Girl in Dorm
- Top of the Heap (1972) - Balloon Thrower
- Your Three Minutes Are Up (1973) - Sandi
- Detroit 9000 (1973) - Barbara (uncredited)
- Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) - Gloria[1]
- Dirty O'Neil (1974) - Hitchhiker
- The Student Body (1976) - Mitzi
- Sextette (1978) - Woman Reporter
- Up in Smoke (1978) - Ajax Lady[1] (final film role)
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Chawkins, Steve (2015-02-18). "June Fairchild dies at 68; former actress lived on skid row". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
- ^ Lentz III, Harris (April 2015). "Obituaries". Classic Images (478): 50–56.
- ^ "Actors to Stage Early Work of Shakespeare". Los Angeles Times. 28 March 1965. pp. CS16.
- ^ "Shakespeare's 'inner O' will rise again tonight during King John showing". El Camino College Warwhoop. 2 April 1965. p. 1.
- ^ a b c Fairchild, June. "Catch a Fallen Star". Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ Van Dyke Parks [@thevandykeparks] (September 10, 2018). "I wuz nuts about Hutton's girlfriend. Quite a dancer. Yet, she didn't read Mankind magazine, nor have an inkling of anthtopology and the cold aboriginal nights that inspired my suggestion. Wiki duz need an edit" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Schwartz, Noaki (2001-02-21). "A Fallen Star: Addiction: Former actress, now 54 and living on the streets, dreams of a movie comeback". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
- ^ "June's Easter Greeting (caption)". Independent. Independent Press-Telegram. April 14, 1968. p. 36. Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
