June Allyson (October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss (1951). From 1959-1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson.
Allyson was born Eleanor (Ella) Geisman in the Bronx, New York City. He...
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June Allyson (October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss (1951). From 1959-1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson.
Allyson was born Eleanor (Ella) Geisman in the Bronx, New York City. Her parents were Clara Provost and Robert Geisman. Her paternal grandparents, Harry Geisman and Anna Hafner, were immigrants from Germany, although Allyson has claimed that her last name was originally "Van Geisman", and was of Dutch origin.
In 1918, when June was only six months old, her alcoholic father, who had worked as a janitor, abandoned the family. To make ends meet, her mother worked as a telephone operator and restaurant cashier. Allyson was brought up in near poverty.
In 1925, when she was eight, a dead tree branch fell on her while...
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