Joan Crawford
Acting
- Born:
- 1906-03-23
- Died:
- 1977-05-10
- Place of birth:
- San Antonio, Texas, USA
Biography
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 1906 – May 10, 1977) was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison". After an absence of nearly two years from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1955, she became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company, through her marriage to company president Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973. She continued acting in film and television regularly through the 1960s, when her performances became fewer; after the release of the horror film Trog in 1970, Crawford retired from the screen. Following a public appearance in 1974, after which unflattering photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life. She became more and more reclusive until her death in 1977.
Known For
Filmography
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
The Green Fog
Bette and Joan
Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other
Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'Johnny Guitar'
Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?
The Shirley Eder Tapes
Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
Possessed
Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
Brigitte Bardot: The Icon of France
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Tim Conway: Timeless Comedy
Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
The Damned Don't Cry: The Crawford Formula - Real and Reel
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
Complicated Women
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star
Battle-Axe: the Making of 'Strait-Jacket'
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
Joan Crawford: Always the Star
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Legends in Light: The Photography of George Hurrell
The Casting Couch
Biography: Bette Davis — If Looks Could Kill
That's Entertainment! III
Gay! Gay! Hollywood
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Showbiz Ballyhoo
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
Bob Hope's World of Comedy
That's Entertainment, Part II
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
That's Entertainment!
Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death
The Sixth Sense
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Great Performances
Journey to Murder
Trog
The Tim Conway Show
Night Gallery
Garbo, by Joan Crawford
Journey to the Unknown
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Name of the Game
This was the MARY
Berserk!
The Karate Killers
The Oscar
I Saw What You Did
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Big Parade of Comedy
Della
Strait-Jacket
How to Plan a Movie Murder
The Caretakers
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
The Lucy Show
The Merv Griffin Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Virginian
Lykke og krone
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
One Must Die
Route 66
The Best of Everything
Startime
Woman on the Run
Zwischen Glück und Krone
Strange Witness
The Story of Esther Costello
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Autumn Leaves
Queen Bee
Female on the Beach
The Road to Edinburgh
A Star Is Born World Premiere
Johnny Guitar
The Secret Storm
Torch Song
At Home with Joan Crawford
The Oscars
General Electric Theater
Sudden Fear
This Woman Is Dangerous
Goodbye, My Fancy
Harriet Craig
The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Damned Don't Cry
What's My Line?
It's a Great Feeling
Flamingo Road
Daisy Kenyon
Through Many Windows
Possessed
Humoresque
Blow-Ups of 1946
Mildred Pierce
Hollywood Canteen
Above Suspicion
Reunion in France
They All Kissed the Bride
Joan Crawford's Home Movies
When Ladies Meet
A Woman's Face
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Susan and God
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Strange Cargo
The Women
From the Ends of the Earth
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8
The Ice Follies of 1939
The Shining Hour
Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 6
Mannequin
The Bride Wore Red
The Romance of Celluloid
Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
Love on the Run
The Gorgeous Hussy
I Live My Life
No More Ladies
Forsaking All Others
Chained
Sadie McKee
Dancing Lady
Fast Workers
Today We Live
Rain
Grand Hotel
Letty Lynton
Possessed
This Modern Age
We’re Switching to Hollywood
Laughing Sinners
The Stolen Jools
Dance, Fools, Dance
Paid
Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 1
Our Blushing Brides
Montana Moon
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
Untamed
Our Modern Maidens
The Duke Steps Out
Dream of Love
Our Dancing Daughters
Four Walls
Across to Singapore
Rose-Marie
The Law of the Range
West Point
Spring Fever
Twelve Miles Out
The Unknown
The Understanding Heart
The Taxi Dancer
Winners of the Wilderness
Bardelys the Magnificent
Paris
The Boob
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
Sally, Irene and Mary
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
The Only Thing
Old Clothes
Time, the Comedian
The Midshipman
The Circle
Pretty Ladies
The Merry Widow
A Slave of Fashion
Proud Flesh
1925 Studio Tour
Lady of the Night
And One Was Loyal
Rebel Range