23 Facts About Barbara Billingsley

Barbara Billingsley began her career with uncredited roles in Three Guys Named Mike, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Invaders from Mars, and was featured in the 1957 film The Careless Years opposite Natalie Trundy.

Barbara Billingsley then appeared in recurring TV roles, such as The Brothers.

Barbara Billingsley's parents divorced sometime before her fourth birthday, and her father, who later became an assistant chief of police, remarried.

Barbara Billingsley landed a contract with MGM Studios in 1945, and moved with her husband to Los Angeles in 1946.

Barbara Billingsley had mostly uncredited roles in major movies in the 1940s.

In 1952, Barbara Billingsley had her first role as a guest star in an episode of The Abbott and Costello Show.

The next year, Barbara Billingsley had a recurring role in The Brothers and an appearance with David Niven in his anthology series Four Star Playhouse.

Barbara Billingsley had guest roles in The Pride of the Family, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Letter to Loretta, You Are There, and Cavalcade of America.

Barbara Billingsley appeared on Make Room for Daddy on January 14,1957, in the episode "Danny's Date", where she played Mary Rogers.

The pearls, which were Barbara Billingsley's trademark, were, in turn, her idea to have her alter ego wear on television.

Barbara Billingsley had what she termed "a hollow" in her neck and thought that wearing a strand of white pearls would lighten it up for the cameras.

Barbara Billingsley had one regret about the show's lasting success: In standard actors' contracts in the 1950s, residual payments ended after six re-runs and the show, subsequently considered a classic, was syndicated for the rest of her life.

Barbara Billingsley said that her character was the "ideal mother" during a 1997 interview with TV Guide.

Barbara Billingsley set a good example for what a wife could be.

Barbara Billingsley questioned her character's reactions to the Cleaver children's misbehavior, basing her concern on personal experience as the mother of two sons.

Barbara Billingsley was always, though, a true role model for me.

Barbara Billingsley was the straight woman, but she has an awful lot of talent.

When production of the show ended in 1963, Barbara Billingsley had become typecast and had trouble obtaining acting jobs for years.

Barbara Billingsley appeared in the revival of the series The New Leave It to Beaver from 1985 to 1989.

Barbara Billingsley made her final onscreen appearance in the 2003 television movie Secret Santa.

Barbara Billingsley's businesses included Billingsley's Golden Bull, Billingsley's Bocage, the Outrigger Polynesian restaurants in Los Angeles, and a Stork Club in Key West, Florida, where they lived briefly after their wedding.

Barbara Billingsley died of polymyalgia rheumatica at her home in Santa Monica, California, on October 16,2010, at the age of 94.

Barbara Billingsley is interred at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica.