Family Weekly I November 13, 1960
He became an elderly "fuss-budget" after his wife's death, then he married June
Haver and there's been no stopping him since
Fred MacMurray poses
with a new film
star, the canine of
"Shaggy Dog" fame.
By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER
ey, LOOK! There's Fred MacMurray!" cried
II a youngster watching a Hollywood parade.
"Gee whiz, I'd sure like to get his autograph!"
his companion exclaimed.
They were only two of hundreds of youngsters
and teen-agers who crowded around the tall, blue
eyed grandfather, whose physique, stamina, and
popularity among youngsters belie his 52 years.
Ovations like Fred now receives are customarily
reserved for such teen-age idols as Fabian, Troy
Donahue, and the Everly brothers. No one is more
surprised by his new popularity than Fred him
self, who admits that the best he could do a couple
of years ago was sign an autograph for an old lady
who became his fan after he costarred with Claud
ette Colbert in "The Gilded Lily" back in 1935.
The rebirth of Fred's popularity can be traced
to two things "The Shaggy Dog," a gimmick
movie which became Walt Disney's top grosser of
all times, and his marriage to former film star June
Haver, who talked the middle-age widower with
two nearly grown children into starting life anew.
"When I married Fred," June says, "he was
terribly set in his ways. He was a fuss-budget. He
hadn't quite progressed to being a lint picker, but
he was already an ash-tray emptier,, and that's
just about as set in his ways as a man can get."
Fred was 45 when his first wife, Broadway act
ress Lillian Lamont, died in 1953 after 17 years of
marriage. Fred lost ambition, interest, even en
thusiasm for life itself. With Lillian gone, he told
himself, he would just fish, play golf, and accept a
movie role only if he couldn't resist the script.
Certainly he didn't have to work any longer. In
20 years as a top star, he had amassed a fortune
and held on to it tightly.
Fred would never deny he is a cautious man with
a penny. One of his friends assured me that Fred
resoled his own shoes to save on cobbler's ex
penses, and a coworker reported Fred brings his
lunch to the studio In a paper bag.
Fred isn't sure what's behind his frugal tenden
cies, but thinks it may stem from his early days in
Los Angeles when he barely supported himself
and his mother by doing anything from scraping
paint off old cars to playing a sax in local bands.
Spoofing It up a bit, June, Laurie, Kate, and Fred
lit for a family portrait in an old Model-T Ford.
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Fred MacMurray
Since then, he has counted every penny earned,
spent, and saved, and has always put aside a cer
tain amount for a rainy day. By the time his wife
passed away, Fred had enough money in real es
tate including a 2,500-acre cattle ranch in north
ern California, oil interests, and part-ownership
with John Wayne in a hotel to live comfortably
through his remaining years.
Enter June, Bringing Happiness
And then, all of a sudden, it was June.
Pert and attractive, June had planned to become
a nun after an unsuccessful marriage to musician
Jimmy Zito and the sudden death of her next
fiance, a Beverly Hills dentist. Instead, she found
herself a husband 19 years her senior, plus an 11-year-old
stepson and 14-year-old stepdaughter.
"It was difficult to feel like we were a family be
cause we had no memories in common," she re
calls, "but it grew easier as the years went by and
we shared our own experiences."
June not only had beauty and youth, but also a
vitality which rubbed off on her new husband, for
whom she readily gave up what could have been a
resurgence of her once-successful career.
The effect on Fred soon became apparent to his
friends. His clothes, once ultraconservative, be
came gay and youthful. Where he had been known
as quiet one of his associates said you could be
friends with Fred for 15 years and still know noth
ing about him he now became talkative and zest
ful, the life of the party.
Although June's influence on Fred was evident
in many ways, it was her determination to adopt
a child that brought about the greatest change.
When June first suggested adopting a baby, Fred
wouldn't even consider it. "I've been through all
that," he protested. "Now I'd like to watch some
one else raise a family."
In fact, he was looking forward to becoming a
grandfather, an ambition he recently realized when
his daughter, Mrs. Tom Pool, presented him with
his first grandchild.
Fred good-humoredly insists it was a conspiracy
that changed his mind, but June says it was pure
coincidence that she accepted a party invitation
from an obstetrician friend, Dr. Al Meitus. By the
same coincidence, all the other guests were obste
tricians and pediatricians, and the talk was about
nothing but babies. By the time they left the party,
Fred had agreed to adopt a baby!
Instead, he got two.
A few days after the party, Fred was playing
golf when June excitedly called him at the country
club with the news that Dr. Meitus knew of twins
they could adopt. Fred clutched the telephone re
ceiver. "Twins.'" he shouted.
June breathlessly explained how much easier it
would be to raise two girls, and when the conversa
tion ended, Fred was reluctantly agreeing.
"They were premature babies and still in an in
cubator," June recalls, "so we had a month's time
to get everything ready. Fred didn't become en
thused about it until we were fixing the babies'
room. When he saw me clumsily trying to put up
the bathinet, he took over and showed me how to
do it properly. That's all it took to get him excited
about the prospect of having two brand-new in
fants in the house."
Fred was still a little wary when Katie and
Laurie were brought home, and at first refused to
hold them. But his enthusiasm increased quickly,
and soon he was feeding, bathing, and changing
them even getting up in the middle of the night
when he heard them crying. The twins, now four
years old, responded to Fred, too. "They climb all
over him when he's home," June says happily.
"I try to be strict with Katie and Laurie, but I
don't think I am," Fred admits. "I have too much
In his latest film, "The Absent-Minded Professor," Fred
fun with them to worry about discipline."
The twins also helped put Fred in the right mood
to accept the role in "Shaggy Dog." Although Fred
was never out of work, his career had sunk to sup
porting roles and low-budget pictures until Disney
offered him the part of the father of a boy who
turns into a shaggy dog.
The conservative Fred MacMurray of the old
days would have scoffpd at playing such a role.
The rejuvenated Fred MacMurray thought it would
be fun, although he never guessed the impact the
film would make on his career and private life.
The subsequent success not only established him
with the new generation but led to a lead in Billy
, Wilder's tremendously successful "The Apart
ment," the title role in Disney's forthcoming "The
Absent-Minded Professor," as well as a new TV
series of his own, "My Three Sons."
To Fred, acting has become fun again, as has
life itself, and Fred credits most of his new-found
happiness to luck and June Haver.
"I just happened to be in the right spot at the
right time," he insists. "Meeting a girl like June
was luck, and if I have any talent, that's luck, too.
I didn't have anything to do with it."
shares a chemical discovery with his dog Charlie.
Family Weekly, November 13, 19G0
7