community
directory
books
authors
images
encyclopedia
Email:
Password:
Register

Knowledgerush Search

 
Google
  Web knowledgerush


Search for images of Joan Crawford


Message boards   Post comment

Joan Crawford

JoanCrawford.jpg

Joan Crawford (March 23, 1905 - May 10, 1977) was an Academy Award winning American actress.

Biography

Born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, she was the third child of Thomas E. LeSueur (1868-1938) and Anna Bell Johnson (1884-1958). Her older sister and brother were Daisy LeSueur, who died as a very young child, and Hal LeSueur, who was born September 3, 1903.

Her mother later married Henry J. Cassin (born 1873). The family lived in Lawton, Oklahoma, where Mr. Cassin ran a theater. The 1910 Comanche County, Oklahoma, Federal Census, enumerated on April 20, shows Henry and Anna Cassin living at 910 "D" Street in Lawton. Lucille is five years old.

Lucille preferred the nickname Billie, and she loved watching live acts perform. Her ambition was to be a dancer.

In about 1916, they moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Henry Cassin is first listed in the City Directory in 1917 and his residence is 403 East Ninth Street.

While still in elementary school, she was placed in St. Agnes Academy (a Catholic school in Kansas City). Later, after her mother and stepfather broke up, she stayed on at St. Agnes as a work student. She then went to Rockingham Academy as a work student. And in 1922 she registered at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she attended for less than a year.

She began her career as a chorus line dancer under the name Billie Cassin, eventually making her way to New York City. In 1925 she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio under the name Lucille LeSueur and went to Culver City, California.

Starting out in silent movies, she worked hard to ensure that her contract with the studio would be renewed. A movie-magazine contest was the source of her well-known stage name. The female contestant who entered the name "Joan Crawford" was awarded $500.00.

Joan Crawford acted in numerous theatrical motion pictures over the course of her career, and she also worked in radio and television.

She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Mildred Pierce in 1945, and was nominated for Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952).

In 1929, at the time she married her first husband, Joan bought a mansion at 426 North Bristol Avenue in Brentwood, midway between Beverly Hills and the Pacific Ocean, which was her primary residence for the next twenty-six years.

She had four husbands: actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (married June 3, 1929 in New York City, divorced 1933), Franchot Tone (married October 11, 1935 in New Jersey, divorced 1939), and Phillip Terry (married July 21, 1942 at Hidden Valley Ranch in Ventura County, California, divorced 1946); and Pepsi-Cola president Alfred N. Steele (married May 10, 1955 in Las Vegas, Nevada).

Joan moved to a lavish apartment in New York City with her last husband, Alfred Steele. He died there on April 6, 1959, leaving her a widow. She then sold her Brentwood mansion and stayed on in New York.

Besides her work as an actress, from 1955 to 1973 Joan Crawford was a publicity executive for Pepsi-Cola and traveled extensively for the company. Two days after the death of Alfred Steele, she was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors.

She was the recipient of the Sixth Annual Pally Award, which was awarded to the employ making a significant contribution to company sales. It was in the shape of a bronze Pepsi bottle. She proudly kept her Pally next to her Oscar for Mildred Pierce.

After her death, a book titled Mommie Dearest, which was written by the eldest of her four adopted children, Christina Crawford, was published. Friends of Joan were shocked by the tales of outrageous cruelty and called it fictitious.

It was made into a film starring Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford, which was seen to be camp by most viewers. Audiences howled with laughter at the overacted, melodramatic portrayal of Crawford. And the child abuse, control issues, et cetera, were acted out as outlandishly as they were written.

Joan Crawford died in New York City of a heart attack while apparently ill with cancer. In her will, she gave the two youngest of her adopted children, Cindy and Cathy, $77,500.00 each. But she explicitly disinherited the eldest two, Christina and Christopher, with the phrase "...for reasons which should be well known to them."

She was cremated and her ashes buried with her last husband, Alfred Steele, in Ferncliff Cemetery at Hartsdale, New York. Her gravestone reads: Joan Crawford 1905-1977.

Joan Crawford's foot and hand prints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1750 Vine Street.

Filmography

Television Performances

Archive Footage

External Links

Referenced By

10 May | 10th May | 1904 | 1905 in film | 1908 | 1928 in film | 1931 in film | 1931 in movies | 1932 in film | 1932 in movies | 1933 in film | 1933 in movies | 1934 in film | 1934 in movies | 1939 in film | 1945 | 1945 in film | 1968 in television | 1977 in film | 23 March | 23rd March | Academy Award for Best Actress | Academy Awards/Best Actress | Actors/Female | ActresseS | ActressesS | Bette Davis | Burial place | Charles Pierce | Clarence Brown | Coat hanger | Crime fiction | Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. | Douglas Fairbanks Jr. | Faye Dunaway | Ferncliff Cemetery | Franchot Tone | Gone With The Wind | Grand Hotel | Hard-boiled | Hearst Castle | Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument | Hollywood's Walk of Fame | Hollywood Review of 1929 | Hollywood Revue of 1929 | Hollywood Walk Of Fame | Hollywoods Walk of Fame | List of actresses | List of cancer patients | List of famous cancer patients | List of famous cemeteries | List of famous people who have suffered from or died of cancer | List of female actors | List of female movie actors | List of notable actresses | List of people by name: Cr | March 23 | March 23rd | May 10 | May 10th | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Metro Goldwyn Mayer | Mildred Pierce | Mildred Pierce (movie) | Mildred Pierce (novel) | Mommie Dearest | Mommy Dearest | Pepsi | Pepsi-Cola | PepsiCo | Pepsi Cola | Philip Terry | Phillip Terry | Phoebe Cates | Possessed (film) | Rona Jaffe | Sadie Thompson | Sudden Fear | The Hollywood Review of 1929 | The Hollywood Revue of 1929 | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

 

Compose Your Message

Your Email Address or Pen Name (optional):
Subject:
Your Message:
 

 

 

 

 

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joan Crawford".

 

Contact Us | Privacy Statement & Terms of Use

 
Copyright © 1999-2003 Knowledgerush.com. All rights reserved.