June Havoc

June Havoc, born Ellen Evangeline Hovick on November 8, 1912, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was an actress, dancer, stage director, and memoirist whose career on Broadway spanned from 1936 to 1987. Her elder sister was Rose Louise Hovick, known professionally as Gypsy Rose Lee. Their parents were Rose Thompson Hovick, of German descent, and John Olaf Hovick, the son of Norwegian immigrants, who worked as an advertising agent and reporter for the Seattle Times. Havoc acknowledged in her later years that 1912 was likely her correct birth year, though 1916 had been cited for many years; her mother had forged birth certificates for both daughters to circumvent child labor laws.

Havoc's professional life began in childhood, when she was billed as "Baby June" in vaudeville. Following her parents' divorce, she and her sister performed to support the family, with June's talent frequently overshadowing Louise's. An audition with theater builder Alexander Pantages led to engagements across the vaudeville circuit, and she also appeared in silent Hollywood films during this period, unable to speak until age three. In December 1928, seeking to escape her domineering mother, Havoc eloped with Bobby Reed, a fellow performer in the vaudeville act. Weeks later, following a performance at the Jayhawk Theatre in Topeka, Kansas, her mother reported Reed to local police and was physically restrained after attempting to shoot him at the police station. Havoc subsequently left both her family and the act, adopting the surname Havoc as a variant of her birth name.

She made her Broadway debut in 1936 in the Sigmund Romberg operetta Forbidden Melody. In 1940, she delivered a show-stopping performance as Gladys Bumps in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey, which starred Gene Kelly and also featured Van Johnson and future film director Stanley Donen in the chorus. The success of that production drew Havoc, Johnson, and Kelly to Hollywood. Beginning in 1942, she appeared in eleven films over two years, among them My Sister Eileen with Rosalind Russell and No Time for Love with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. She returned to Broadway in the 1943–44 season to co-star with Bobby Clark in the Cole Porter musical Mexican Hayride, earning the Donaldson Award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a musical.

In 1944, when Ethel Merman withdrew from the musical Sadie Thompson — a production based on W. Somerset Maugham's short story Rain, with a score by Vernon Duke and Howard Dietz and directed by Rouben Mamoulian — Havoc left Mexican Hayride to assume the title role. The show opened on Broadway on November 16, 1944, to mixed notices overall, but Havoc received nearly uniform praise. Reviewers called her the production's most enjoyable asset and described her performance as consummate, surprisingly effective, and truly touching, with some naming her a worthy successor to Jeanne Eagels, who had originated the role on the Broadway stage in the play Rain. Despite the favorable reception of her work, the production closed on January 6, 1945, after sixty performances. In 1945, she starred in The Ryan Girl on Broadway.

In Hollywood, Havoc played second female leads opposite major musical stars of the era, including Alice Faye in Hello, Frisco, Hello, Betty Grable in When My Baby Smiles at Me, and Betty Hutton in Red, Hot, and Blue. She also took leading roles in several films noir, among them Intrigue with George Raft, Chicago Deadline with Alan Ladd, The Story of Molly X with John Russell, and Once a Thief with Cesar Romero. Her most widely remembered film role came in Elia Kazan's Academy Award-winning best picture Gentleman's Agreement, in which she played a secretary who conceals her Jewish identity.

In the late 1950s, Havoc pursued classical stage work. She starred as Queen Jocasta opposite John Kerr in Jean Cocteau's The Infernal Machine at the Phoenix Theatre Company, then played Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the American Shakespeare Festival Theater and Academy, and subsequently returned to the Phoenix Theatre for The Beaux' Stratagem. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson praised her Jocasta for its gravity and force, called her Titania conspicuously delightful, and noted that she played Mrs. Sullen as a lovely lady with an infectious sense of humor.

After the death of their mother in 1954, both Havoc and her sister were free to write about their upbringing without the threat of legal action. Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir, published in 1957, inspired the Broadway musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable, with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Havoc objected to the portrayals of herself and her mother in the piece but took no action to obstruct the production, though the disagreement contributed to an estrangement between the sisters.

Havoc's Broadway work extended well beyond performance. She received a Tony Award nomination for Best Director in the Dramatic category in 1964 and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1976. Among her Broadway credits as a performer and book writer were the play The Warm Peninsula, the musical Sadie Thompson, Habeas Corpus, Marathon '33, Happy Birthday Mr. Abbott!, and the play Dinner at Eight. Her final Broadway appearance came in 1987. On television, she last acted in 1990 in a story arc on the soap opera General Hospital and last appeared as herself in 1999 in an episode of Great Performances devoted to Rodgers and Hart.