June Langley

June Langley (1898 –1964) was an actress.

Biography

Born Miriam Gertrude Levy in Liverpool on 22 April, 1904, she was the eldest daughter of Mabel Rushton and J. Langley Levy and the family came to South Africa when her father became the editor of the Sunday Times (1910-1942). Using the stage name of June Langley, she had a short but successful career on the Johannesburg stage, acting in many plays for Leonard Rayne at the Standard Theatre. She won a gold medal for elocution at the 1912 Eisteddfod and made her debut at the age of 16 in December 1914, acting in The Prince and the Beggar Maid, directed by Malcolm Tearle. Always in demand and regularly praised by the critics, she seemed to handle comedy and melodrama with equal aplomb and also played a number of boy’s roles. Amongst the directors she worked with were Ralph Kimpton, Lago Clifford and Burton Seymour. Another member of the company was Douglas Drew, whom she married in Cape Town in March 1917. In addition she appeared as a “sweet young thing” in The Water Cure (1916), a short film directed by B.F. Clinton.

Her marriage to Douglas Drew (original name Douglas Lange) was short-lived and soon after their son was born she divorced him. In July 1918 she married John Sugden Moore, a wool merchant from Bradford in Yorkshire. Back in England she took the surname of her new husband, thus becoming June Langley Moore. Her younger sister Doris (b. 1902), who became a distinguished fashion historian and designed Katharine Hepburn’s costumes for The African Queen (1951), married John’s brother Robert, and became Doris Langley Moore. Together the sisters wrote “The bride’s book, or Young housewife’s companion” (by Two Ladies of England/1932) and “The pleasure of your company: a text-book of hospitality” (1936). At home in Yorkshire, June Langley continued to act as a non-professional, notably for the Leeds Repertory Company. After her divorce from Moore in 1945, she married Walter Bateson, a retired wing commander in the RAF, and died in Brighton at the age of 66. Her first-born son, who was named Cedric Joseph Lange, later changed his name by deed pole and as Jeremy Hawk (1918-2002) had a successful career on stage, film and television. Actress Belinda Lang is Jeremy Hawk’s daughter and thus June Langley’s granddaughter.

She passed away in Brighton on 31 August, 1964 (FO)