June Kirby

June Shirley Kirby (January 5, 1928 – March 6, 2022) was an American actress, model, and wardrobe professional whose career spanned performance, fashion, and film production. Born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, she was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she completed her secondary education at James J. Ferris High School. She subsequently attended Kingston University, studying fashion.

Before establishing herself on Broadway, Kirby built a profile as a model. In 1946, the National Chiropractic Association named her "posture queen of America," and she appeared in Famous Models Magazine in June 1950. Her visibility as a performer grew through her work as a showgirl at The Diamond Horseshoe in the late 1940s, where she was noticed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Kirby's Broadway career ran from 1948 to 1949 and included two productions: As the Girls Go and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her stage work coincided with her emergence as a Goldwyn Girl, a role that led to film appearances in two 1955 productions — Vincente Minnelli's Kismet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Guys and Dolls, the latter featuring Marlon Brando, Larri Thomas, and Pat Sheehan.

The latter portion of Kirby's professional life was devoted primarily to costume and wardrobe work on film productions. In 1955, she served as wardrobe mistress on the British science fiction film Timeslip, also released as The Atomic Man. She held the same role on the 1971 British comedy On the Buses.

Kirby married Roy B. Whitlock on August 20, 1960, and the couple had a daughter named Shawn. Whitlock died on December 23, 1984. She later married Bob Przybysz. Kirby died on March 6, 2022, in Aiken, South Carolina, at the age of 94.