Joan Crawford

Actor

Born March 23, 1906 in 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.

Filmography

And One Was Loyal

Ann Howard

Rebel Range

Stella Faring

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

Self (archive footage)

Bette and Joan

Self (archive footage)

Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other

Self (archive footage)

Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'Johnny Guitar'

Self (archive footage)

Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?

Self (archive footage)

Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe

Self (archive footage)

Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture

Brigitte Bardot: The Icon of France

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

Self (archive footage)

Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood

Various Roles (archive footage)

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story

Self (archive)

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

Self (archive footage)

Tim Conway: Timeless Comedy

Self (archive footage)

Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition

Self (archive footage)

Stardust: The Bette Davis Story

Self (archive footage) (voice)

42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage

Self (archive footage)

The Damned Don't Cry: The Crawford Formula - Real and Reel

Self (archive)

Complicated Women

Self (archive footage)

Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star

Self (archive footage)

Battle-Axe: the Making of 'Strait-Jacket'

Self (archive footage)

Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces

Self (archive footage / uncredited)

Joan Crawford: Always the Star

Self (archive footage)

The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies

Self (archive footage)

The Casting Couch

Biography: Bette Davis — If Looks Could Kill

Self (archive footage)

That's Entertainment! III

(archive footage)

Gay! Gay! Hollywood

Going Hollywood: The '30s

(archive footage)

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

(in "Humoresque") (archive footage)

Showbiz Ballyhoo

Self (archive footage)

Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!

Self (archive footage)

That's Entertainment, Part II

(archive footage)

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Self (archive footage)

That's Entertainment!

(archive footage) (uncredited)

Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death

Joan Fairchild

The Sixth Sense

Joan Fairchild

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

Self (archive footage)

Great Performances

Self

Journey to Murder

Host

Trog

Dr. Brockton

Night Gallery

Miss Menlo

Garbo, by Joan Crawford

Self - Host / Narrator (voice)

Journey to the Unknown

Self - Host

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Self

The Name of the Game

Committee Member (uncredited)

This was the MARY

Self/Narrator

Berserk!

Monica Rivers

The Karate Killers

Amanda True

The Oscar

Joan Crawford

I Saw What You Did

Amy Nelson

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Miriam Deering in Car (uncredited)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Amanda True

The Big Parade of Comedy

Bobby (archive footage)

Della

Della Chappell

Strait-Jacket

Lucy Harbin

How to Plan a Movie Murder

Self

The Caretakers

Lucretia Terry

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Blanche Hudson

The Lucy Show

Joan Crawford

The Merv Griffin Show

Self

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Self

The Virginian

Stephanie White

Lykke og krone

Hollywood: The Selznick Years

Self - Janie Barlow (archive footage) (uncredited)

One Must Die

Route 66

Morgan Harper

The Best of Everything

Amanda Farrow

Startime

Self

Zwischen Glück und Krone

Strange Witness

Ruth Marshall

The Story of Esther Costello

Margaret Landi

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

Stella Faring

Autumn Leaves

Millicent Wetherby

Queen Bee

Eva Phillips

Female on the Beach

Lynn Markham

The Road to Edinburgh

Mary Andrews

A Star Is Born World Premiere

Self

Johnny Guitar

Vienna

Torch Song

Jenny Stewart

At Home with Joan Crawford

Self

The Oscars

Self

General Electric Theater

Ann Howard

Sudden Fear

Myra Hudson Blaine

This Woman Is Dangerous

Elizabeth Austin

Goodbye, My Fancy

Agatha Reed

Harriet Craig

The Colgate Comedy Hour

Self

The Damned Don't Cry

Ethel Whitehead

What's My Line?

Self

It's a Great Feeling

Joan Crawford (uncredited)

Flamingo Road

Lane Bellamy

Daisy Kenyon

Through Many Windows

Self - Narrator

Possessed

Louise Howell

Humoresque

Helen Wright

Blow-Ups of 1946

Self

Mildred Pierce

Hollywood Canteen

Self

Above Suspicion

Frances Myles

Reunion in France

Michele de la Becque

They All Kissed the Bride

Margaret Johanna 'M.J.' Drew

Joan Crawford's Home Movies

Self

When Ladies Meet

Mary 'Minnie' Howard

A Woman's Face

Anna Holm

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound

Self

Susan and God

Susan Trexel

Hollywood: Style Center of the World

Self

Strange Cargo

Julie

The Women

Crystal Allen

From the Ends of the Earth

Self

Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8

Joan Crawford

The Ice Follies of 1939

Mary McKay

The Shining Hour

Olivia Riley Linden

Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 6

Self

Mannequin

Jessie Cassidy

The Bride Wore Red

Anni Pavlovitch

The Romance of Celluloid

Self (archive footage)

Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12

Self (uncredited)

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

Mrs. Fay Cheyney

Love on the Run

Sally Parker

The Gorgeous Hussy

Margaret "Peggy" O'Neal

I Live My Life

Kay Bentley

No More Ladies

Marcia Townsend Warren

Forsaking All Others

Mary Clay

Chained

Diane Lovering

Sadie McKee

Sadie

Dancing Lady

Janie Barlow

Fast Workers

Ivy Stevens (Archive Footage) (Uncredited)

Today We Live

Diana 'Ann' Boyce-Smith

Rain

Sadie Thompson

Grand Hotel

Flämmchen

Letty Lynton

Possessed

Marian Martin aka 'Mrs. Moreland'

This Modern Age

Valentine 'Val' Winters

We’re Switching to Hollywood

Self

Laughing Sinners

Ivy 'Bunny' Stevens

The Stolen Jools

Joan Crawford

Dance, Fools, Dance

Bonnie Jordan

Paid

Mary Turner

Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 1

Self

Our Blushing Brides

Geraldine 'Gerry' March

Montana Moon

Joan

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

Self

Untamed

Alice "Bingo" Dowling

Our Modern Maidens

Billie Brown

The Duke Steps Out

Susie

Dream of Love

Adrienne Lecouvreur

Our Dancing Daughters

Diana 'Di' Medford

Four Walls

Frieda

Across to Singapore

Priscilla Crowninshield

Rose-Marie

The Law of the Range

Betty Dallas

West Point

Betty Channing

Spring Fever

Allie Monte

Twelve Miles Out

Jane

The Unknown

Nanon Zanzi

The Understanding Heart

Monica Dale

The Taxi Dancer

Joselyn Poe

Winners Of The Wilderness

René Contrecoeur

Bardelys the Magnificent

Court Gossip (uncredited)

The Merry Widow

Ballroom Dancer (uncredited)

Paris

The Girl

The Boob

Jane

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp

Betty Burton

Sally, Irene and Mary

Irene O'Dare

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)

The Only Thing

Party Guest (uncredited)

Old Clothes

Mary Riley

Time, the Comedian

Art Student (as Lucille LeSueur)

The Midshipman

Extra - Driver of Police Car (uncredited)

The Circle

Young Lady Catherine

Pretty Ladies

Bobby

A Slave of Fashion

Mannequin (uncredited)

Proud Flesh

Party Guest (uncredited)

1925 Studio Tour

Self

Lady of the Night

Body Double for Norma Shearer