Acting
Joan Crawford
1906-03-23 · San Antonio, Texas, USA
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
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Johnny Guitar
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Mildred Pierce
Grand Hotel
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
The Unknown
The Women
Sudden Fear
Strait-Jacket
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Possessed
The Oscars
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Humoresque
Movie credits · 172
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
The Green Fog
Bette and Joan
Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?
Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'Johnny Guitar'
Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other
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
TV credits · 17
The Sixth Sense
Great Performances
The Tim Conway Show
The Name of the Game
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Lucy Show
The Merv Griffin Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Virginian
Route 66
Startime
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
The Secret Storm
The Oscars
General Electric Theater
The Colgate Comedy Hour
What's My Line?
Movie & TV metadata from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.