LOS ANGELES: Even decades after the TV show ended, Barbara Billingsley expressed surprise at the lasting affection people had for “Leave it to Beaver” and her role as the warm, supportive mother of a pair of precocious boys. The actress, who gained supermom status for her gentle portrayal of June Cleaver in the 1950s television series, died Saturday after a long illness. She was 94. “We knew we were making a good show, because it was so well written,” Billingsley said in 1994. “But we had no idea what was ahead. People still talk about it and write letters, telling how much they watch it today with their children and grandchildren.” Billingsley, who had suffered from a rheumatoid disease, died at her home in Santa Monica, said family spokeswoman Judy Twersky. When the show debuted in 1957, Jerry Mathers, who played Beaver, was 9, and Tony Dow, who portrayed Wally, was 12. Billingsley's character, the perfect stay-at-home 1950s mom, was always there to gently but firmly nurture both through the ups and downs of childhood. Beaver, meanwhile, was a typical boy whose adventures landed him in one comical crisis after another. Billingsley's own two sons said she was pretty much the image of June Cleaver in real life, although the actress disagreed. “She was every bit as nurturing, classy, and lovely as ‘June Cleaver,' and we were so proud to share her with the world,” her son Glenn Billingsley said Saturday. She did acknowledge that she may have become more like June as the series progressed. “I think what happens is that the writers start writing about you as well as the character they created,” she once said. “So you become sort of all mixed up, I think.” A wholesome beauty with a lithe figure, Billingsley began acting in her elementary school's plays and soon discovered she wanted to do nothing else.
