Her childhood as Baby June, vaudeville headliner, was immortalized on Broadway in the 1959 musical "Gypsy", in which both June Havoc and her older sister--who would become Gypsy Rose Lee--were driven by their stage-mother-of-all-time Rose to become stars. Havoc went on to have a career in TV and films, proving to be a capable actress even if she never reached the top ranks of Hollywood stars. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Havoc can be recalled for her work in the 1940 Broadway production of "Pal Joey" and for such feature films as "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), in which she played Miss Wales, the Jewish secretary of Gregory Peck who had changed her name and who found herself accused of Jewish anti-Semitism.

Havoc began performing in silent film shorts when she was two years old and by age five was making $1,500 per week in vaudeville. She married her first of three husbands at age 13, and, when vaudeville declined, she worked as a model and earned money in dance marathons, as well as performed in the Catskill Mountain resorts of Upstate New York. Havoc made it to Broadway in 1936 in "Forbidden Melody" and after her success in "Pal Joey" (alongside Gene Kelly), Hollywood finally took notice. Although, she had additional Broadway success four years with "Mexican Hayride", which earned her Donaldson Award. By that time, she had broken into films in adult roles. In "Four Jacks and a Jill" (1941), she was Opal, the singer who quits the band thus allowing Ray Bolger to hire Anne Shirley and Desi Arnaz. She sang in the lead in her next film, "Sing Your Worries Away", but was in support of Janet Blair and Rosalind Russell in "My Sister Eileen" (both 1942). Havoc had a rather amusing lead opposite Joe E. Brown in "Casanova in Burlesque" (1944), playing a stripper who blackmails college professor Brown into giving her the lead in a production of "The Taming of the Shrew."

She was off the screen from 1945-47, when she returned in a decidedly non-singing role of Miss Wales in "Gentleman's Agreement". Partly because of the role, the non-Jewish Havoc was linked with other Jewish actors who had changed their names (e.g., Edward G. Robinson, Danny Kaye, Melvyn Douglas) when Representative John Rankin of Mississippi denounced a petition against the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearing in 1947 by suggesting that these performers were less than American. Unlike some, Havoc continued to work, now in generally non-singing supporting roles with an occasional lead. She was a gangster's widow who attempts to find his killer in "The Story of Molly X" (1949) and was in the odd British film "Lady Possessed" (1952), as a woman who thinks she is possessed by the spirit of James Mason's deceased wife. Feature films work began to peter out in the mid-50s and it was nearly thirty years before she returned to the big screen with a small role in "Can't Stop the Music" (1980).

The small screen provided more opportunities. As early as 1949, Havoc had appeared on an episode of the anthology series "Fireside Theatre" and played "Anna Christie" in a 1952 "Celanese Theatre" production (ABC). She headlined the series "Willy" (CBS, 1954-55) as an attorney in a small town coping with sexism and having a full life. She was also a regular panelist in the late 50s on "The Last Word", which sought to attack vagaries of the English language. By the early 60s, her guest appearances became few and far between. She turned to talk shows, and in 1964-65 hosted a syndicated effort entitled "The June Havoc Show/More Havoc", which played on the title of her 1959 autobiography "Early Havoc." In 1987, Havoc was still going strong, appearing on an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" (CBS), and in 1990, she appeared in a brief regular role on the ABC soap "General Hospital".

The actress also continued to work onstage. In 1963, Havoc wrote and directed herself in "Marathon '33", which recalled her years during the Depression. She appeared in the national tour of "Sweeney Todd" in the early 80s. In 1985, she appeared on the London stage in her one-person show "An Unexpected Evening With June Havoc".