Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur ; March 23, 1904 - May 10, 1977) is an American film and television actress who started her career as a dancer and stage girl stage. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Crawford tenth on the list of the biggest female stars of the Hollywood Classic Cinema.
Starting his career as a dancer at a travel theater company, before debuting as a choir girl on Broadway, Crawford signed a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame was rivaled, and then lasted longer, his MGM counterpart Norm Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often plays a hardworking young woman who finds love and success. These stories are well received by the Depression-era audience, and are popular among women. Crawford became one of the most prominent Hollywood movie stars, and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but his films began to lose money, and, by the late 1930s, he was labeled "office box poison". But his career gradually improved in the early 1940s, and he made a great comeback in 1945 by starring in Mildred Pierce , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actress. She will continue to receive Best Actress nominations for Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952). He continued to act in movies and television throughout the 1950s and 1960s; he achieved box office success with a very successful horror movie Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962), where he starred alongside his old rival Bette Davis.
In 1955, Crawford was involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company through his marriage to Chairman Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors, serving until he forcibly retired in 1973. After releasing the British horror movie Trog in 1970, Crawford retired from the screen. After public appearances in 1974, after unattractive photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life and became increasingly closed until his death in 1977.
Crawford married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce; the latter ending with the death of husband Alfred Steele. He adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his biological mother. Crawford's relationship with his two older children, Christina and Christopher, was fierce. Crawford deprived his inheritance, and, after Crawford's death, Christina wrote the famous Tell-All memoir entitled Mommie Dearest (1978).
Video Joan Crawford
Kehidupan awal
Born as Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the youngest and third son Anna Bell (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry worker. He is of British descent, French Huguenot, Swedish, and Irish. Crawford's twin sister is the sister of Daisy LeSueur, who died before the birth of Lucille, and Hal LeSueur's brother.
Crawford's father left his family a few months before his birth, reappearing in 1930 in Abilene, Texas, reportedly working as a construction worker. After LeSueur's departure from the family home, Crawford's mother married Henry J. Cassin. The wedding was listed in the census as Crawford's first marriage.
Crawford lives with his mother, stepfather, and sibling in Lawton, Oklahoma. There, Cassin, a small impresario, runs the Ramsey Opera House; he managed to order various players and recorded such as Anna Pavlova and Eva Tanguay. At the time, Crawford was reportedly unaware that Cassin, whom he called "father", was not his biological father until his older brother Hal said the truth. Cassin allegedly began to torture him sexually when he was eleven years old; the harassment continues until he goes to St. Agnes Academy, Catholic girls school. Crawford prefers the nickname "Billie" as a child and enjoys watching vaudeville perform on her stepfather's theater stage. The instability of his family negatively affected Crawford and his school never formally developed beyond basic education.
From childhood, Crawford's ambition was to become a dancer. One day, however, in an attempt to escape from piano lessons so that he can play with friends, he jumps off his front porch and cuts his legs badly on a broken milk bottle. As a result, he underwent three operations to repair the damage. He can not attend primary school, or continue dancing lessons, for 18 months.
While still living in Lawton, Crawford's stepfather was accused of embezzlement. Although he was released in court, he was blacklisted in Lawton, and his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, around 1916. After their relocation, Cassin, a Catholic, placed Crawford in St. Louis. Agnes Academy in Kansas City. When his mother and stepfather separated, he remained at St. Agnes as a working student, where she spends more time working, especially cooking and cleaning, than studying. He then attended the Rockingham Academy, also as a working student. While attending there, he started dating, and had his first serious relationship, with trumpet player named Ray Sterling. Sterling reportedly inspired him to start challenging himself academically.
In 1922, he enrolled at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, giving his birth year as 1906. He attended Stephens just a few months before withdrawing after he realized he was not ready for college.
Maps Joan Crawford
Careers
Initial career
Under the name of Lucille LeSueur, Crawford began dancing on the choruses of the revues journey and was seen dancing in Detroit by producer Jacob J. Shubert. Shubert placed him in the choir for his 1924 show, Innocent Eyes, at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway in New York City. Upon appearing at Innocent Eyes Crawford meets a saxophone player named James Welton. Both were allegedly married in 1924 and lived together for several months, although this supposed marriage was never mentioned later by Crawford.
Crawford wanted additional work, and approached Loews public relations publisher Nils Granlund. Granlund secured a position for him with the action of singer Harry Richman and arranged for him to do a screen test that he sent to producer Harry Rapf in Hollywood. Stories continue that Crawford is increasingly supplementing his income by appearing in one or more pornographic pornographic films, although this has been debated.
Rapf notified Granlund on 24 December 1924, that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) had offered Crawford's contract at $ 75 a week. Granlund immediately sent LeSueur, who had returned to his mother's home in Kansas City, with news; he borrowed $ 400 for travel expenses. He left Kansas City on December 26, 1924 and arrived in Culver City, California on January 1, 1925.
Credited as Lucille LeSueur, her first film was Lady of the Night in 1925, as a double body for MGM's most popular female star, Norma Shearer. He also appeared on The Circle and Pretty Ladies (both 1925), starring comedian ZaSu Pitts. This was soon followed by a similarly small role and was not billed in two other 1925 successes - The Only Thing , and The Merry Widow .
MGM publicity chief Pete Smith acknowledges his ability to become a major star, but feels his name sounds fake; he told studio head Louis B. Mayer that his last name - LeSueur - reminded him of the sewer. Smith held a contest called "Star Name" in Movie Weekly to allow readers to choose his new stage name. The initial choice was "Joan Arden", but, after another actress was found to have an earlier claim on behalf of it, the alternative name "Crawford" was chosen. Crawford then says that he wants his first name to be pronounced "Jo-Anne", and that he hates Crawford's name because it sounds like "crawfish fish," but also admits he "likes security" bearing that name.
Self-promotion and early success
Growing increasingly frustrated over the size and quality of the parts given to him, Crawford started a self-promotion campaign. As the MGM scriptwriter, Frederica Sagor Maas remembers, "No one has decided to make Joan Crawford a star Joan Crawford became a star because Joan Crawford decided to become a star." He began attending dances in the afternoons and evenings at hotels around Hollywood, where he often won dance competitions with appearances in Charleston and Black Bottom.
His strategy was successful, and MGM threw it in the movie where he first made an impression on the audience, Edmund Goulding's Sally, Irene and Mary (1925). From the beginning of his career, Crawford considered Norma Shearer - the most popular actress in the studio - his professional enemy. Shearer married the head of MGM Production Irving Thalberg; therefore, he has the choice of first script and has more control than any other star in the movie what he will and will not make. Crawford was quoted as saying: "How can I compete with Norma? She sleeps with the boss!"
In 1926, Crawford was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, along with Mary Astor, Dolores del RÃÆ'o, Janet Gaynor, and Fay Wray, among others. That same year, she starred in Paris , which starred Charles Ray. Within a few years, she became a romantic actress for many male MGM stars, including RamÃÆ'³n Novarro, John Gilbert, William Haines, and Tim McCoy.
Crawford appeared in The Unknown (1927), starring Lon Chaney, Sr., who plays a sleeveless carnival knife. Crawford plays the carnival assistant in the scantily clad young woman he wants to marry. He stated that he learned more about acting from watching Chaney's work than from others in his career. "At that time," he said, "I became aware for the first time the difference between standing in front of the camera, and acting." Also in 1927, he appeared with his close friend, William Haines, at Spring Fever, who was the first of three duo-made movies.
In 1928, Crawford starred against RamÃÆ'³n Novarro in Across to Singapore, but his role as Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) which catapulted him to a star. This role makes it as a symbol of modern femininity of the 1920s that rival Clara Bow, the original It's girl, then the leading flapper in Hollywood. The stream of hits followed Our Dancing Daughters , including two flapper-themed films, in which Crawford is manifested for legions of fans (many of whom are women) the ideal vision of the free-spirited, all-American Girl.
F. Scott Fitzgerald menulis tentang Crawford:
Joan Crawford is undoubtedly the best example of the flapper, the girl you see in a smart nightclub, famous for her peak of sophistication, playing with a glass of ice with a slightly bitter expression, dancing with pleasure, laughing out loud, wide, sick eye. Young things with a talent for life.
On June 3, 1929, Crawford married Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church (known as "The Actors' Chapel" because of its proximity to Broadway theaters) in Manhattan, though both are not Catholic. Fairbanks is the son of Douglas Fairbanks and stepson Mary Pickford, who is considered a Hollywood nobleman. Fairbanks Sr. and Pickford opposed the marriage, and did not invite the couple to their home, Pickfair, for eight months after the wedding.
Relationship between Crawford and Fairbanks, Sr. finally warms up; she calls him "Uncle Doug" and he calls him "Billie", his childhood nickname. He and Pickford, however, continued to hate each other. After the first invitation, Crawford and Fairbanks, Jr. became more frequent guests. While Fairbanks men play golf together, however, Crawford is either left with Pickford, who will retire to his place of residence, or just be left alone.
To free himself from the Southwest accent, Crawford tirelessly practiced diction and elocution. He says:
If I have to speak, it is a good idea, I think, to read it out myself, listen carefully to the quality of my voice and pronunciation, and try to learn it that way. I would lock myself in my room and read the newspapers, magazines and books aloud. At my elbow, I keep the dictionary. When I get to a word, I do not know how to pronounce it, I search and repeat it fifteen times correctly.
Transition to advanced voice and success
After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927 - the first long-length movie with some audible dialogue - sound film, or talkie, dubbed, was all the rage. The transition from silent to panic sounds many - if not all - involved with the film industry; many silent movie stars find themselves unusable because of unwanted sounds and unintelligible accents, or simply because of their refusal to make the transition to talkies.
Many studios and stars are avoiding making the transition as long as possible, especially MGM, which is the last studio to turn into sound. The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is one of the first talks, and their first attempt to showcase their stars' ability to transition from silence to sound. Crawford was among a dozen or more MGM stars included in the film; she sings the song "Got a Feeling for You" during the first act film.
Crawford made a successful transition into a talkie. The role of the main cast in the long film was in Untamed in 1929, starring Robert Montgomery. Despite the film's success at the box office, the film received mixed criticism from critics, who noted that while Crawford looked nervous about making the transition to sound, he has become one of the world's most popular actresses. Montana Moon (1930), an uncomfortable mixture of Western clichés and music, in collaboration with John Mack Brown and Ricardo Cortez. Although the film was problematic with censorship, it was a huge success at the time of its release. Our Blushing Brides (1930), starring Robert Montgomery and Anita Page, is the final installment of what is called our Dancing Daughters franchise. The next movie, Paid (1930), paired it with Robert Armstrong, and other successes. During the early era of sound, MGM began placing Crawford in a more sophisticated role, rather than continuing to promote his flapper-inspired personality from the silent era.
In 1931, MGM included Crawford in five films. Three of them work with him across from the greatest male star in studio and King of Hollywood, Clark Gable. Dance, Fools, Dance , released in February 1931, was Crawford and Gable's first couple. Their second joint film, Laughing Sinners , was released in May 1931, directed by Harry Beaumont, and also stars Neil Hamilton. Held , their third film together, released in October, directed by Clarence Brown. These films are very popular among audiences, and are generally well received by critics, hanging Crawford's position as one of MGM's female stars this decade, along with Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, and Jean Harlow. The only other famous film in 1931, this Modern Age, was released in August, and, despite the unfavorable reviews, was a moderate success.
MGM next threw it in the movie Grand Hotel , directed by Edmund Goulding. As the production of the first stars in the studio, Crawford together starred in Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Beery, among others. Receiving third billing, he plays a middle-class stenographer for the general director of Beery's control. Crawford later admitted nervous during the filming because he worked with "very big stars", and that he was disappointed because he did not have a scene with "divine Garbo". Grand Hotel was released in April 1932 for critical and commercial success. This is one of the best-selling films of the year, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Crawford managed to achieve success at Letty Lynton (1932). Soon after the release of the film, plagiarism's lawsuit forced MGM to withdraw it. For years, it has never been shown on television, nor is it available on home videos, and is therefore considered a "lost" Crawford movie. The dress with large ruffled sleeves, designed by Adrian, used by Crawford in the film, became a popular style that same year, and even copied by Macy's.
On loan to United Artists, he played prostitute Sadie Thompson in Rain (1932), a film version of John Colton's game of 1923. Actress Jeanne Eagels played a role on stage, and Gloria Swanson had started a part on screen in the 1928 film version. Crawford's appearance was highlighted, and the movie was not a success. Despite the failure of Rain, in 1932, the publication of "Top Ten Money-Making Stars Poll" first put Crawford in third in popularity at the box office, behind only Marie Dressler and Janet Gaynor. He remained on the list for the next few years, last appearing in 1936. In May 1933, Crawford divorced Fairbanks. Crawford cites "pitiable sadness", claiming Fairbanks has a "jealous and suspicious attitude" towards his friends, and that they "argue hard about the trivial things" that last "far into the night".
After her divorce, she returns to work with Clark Gable, along with Nada Franchot and Fred Astaire, on hit Dancing Lady (1933), where she receives the top bill. He next plays the title role in Sadie McKee (1934), opposite Tone and Gene Raymond. He was paired with Gable for the fifth time at Chained (1934), and for the sixth time in Forsaking All Others (1934). The Crawford movies of this era are the most popular and most successful films of the mid-1930s.
In 1935, Crawford married Franchot Tone, a stage actor from New York who plans to use his movie revenue to finance his theater group. The couple built a small theater at Brentwood's Crawford house, and put on a classic drama production for a select group of friends. Tone and Crawford first appeared together on Today We Live (1933), but Crawford hesitated to enter another romance as soon as he parted company with Fairbanks.
Before, and during, their marriage, Crawford worked to promote the Hollywood Tone career, but Nada was ultimately uninterested in being a movie star, and Crawford finally stalled from the effort. After Tone reportedly started drinking and became physically abusive, he filed for divorce, granted in 1939. Crawford and Nada later rekindled their friendship, and Nada even proposed in 1964 that they remarry. When he died in 1968, Crawford arranged for him to be cremated and his ashes scattered in Muskoka Lakes, Canada.
Crawford continued his reign as a popular film artist until the mid-1930s. No More Ladies (1935) with Robert Montgomery and then Franchot Tone, and succeeded. Crawford had long appealed to MGM's head Louis B. Mayer to give him a more dramatic role, and although he was reluctant, he put it into a sophisticated comedy drama I Living My Life (1935), directed by WAS Van Dyke. It was well received by the critics, and made a bigger profit than the studio expected.
He next starred in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), against Robert Taylor and Lionel Barrymore, and Nada. It was a critical success and a box office, and became one of Crawford's biggest hits of the decade. Love on the Run (1936), a romantic comedy directed by W.S. Van Dyke, is the seventh movie starring Clark Gable. It was, at the time of its launch, called "a lot of happy crap" by critics, but financial success remained.
"Office Corner Box"
Although Crawford remains a respected MGM actress, and his films still make a profit, his popularity declined in the late 1930s. In 1937, Crawford was proclaimed the first "Queen of Film" by Life magazine. He suddenly slipped from seventh to sixteen at the box office that year, and his public popularity also began to wane. Richard Boleslawski's comedy drama The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937) teamed up with William Powell on their single screen. The film also succeeded in Crawford's last box-office before the start of the "Box-Office Poison" period.
She starred opposite Franchot Tone for the seventh - and last - time at The Bride Wore Red (1937). The film is generally reviewed by a majority of critics, with one critic calling it the "ole rags-to-riches stories" Crawford made for years. It also caused financial losses, becoming one of the biggest failures of MGM this year. Mannequin did it, as the New York Times put it, "return Crawford to his throne as the working girl queen." Most of the other reviews were positive, and the film managed to make a little profit, but did not revive Crawford's popularity.
On May 3, 1938, Crawford - along with Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Luise Rainer, John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Dolores del RÃÆ'o, and others - was dubbed the "Box Office Poison" in an open letter at Independent Movie Journal . This list was submitted by Harry Brandt, president of the Association of Independent American Theater Owners. Brandt states that while these stars have a "unquestionably dramatic" ability, their high salaries do not reflect their ticket sales, hurt the exhibitors of the film involved. The follow-up film Crawford, The Shining Hour (1938), co-starred by Margaret Sullavan and Melvyn Douglas, was well received by critics, but it was a box office failure.
He made his comeback in 1939 with his role as a destroyer of Crystal Allen's home in The Women, as opposed to his professional nemesis Norma Shearer. A year later, he played against the type, playing the fierce Julie role in Strange Cargo (1940), his eighth film - and last - with Clark Gable. He later starred as a rogue face in A Woman's Face (1941), a remake of the Swedish film En kvinnas ansikte who had starred Ingrid Bergman in the lead role three years earlier. While the film was only a moderate box office success, Crawford's performance was praised by many critics.
Crawford adopted his first child, a daughter, in 1940. Since he was single, California's law prevented him from adopting it in the country so he arranged an adoption through an agency in Las Vegas. The boy was temporarily called Joan, until Crawford changed his name to Christina. Crawford married actor Phillip Terry on July 21, 1942, after a six-month courtship. Together, the couple adopted a son whom they named Christopher, but his biological mother took the child back. The couple adopted another boy, whom they named Phillip Terry, Jr. After the marriage ended in 1946, Crawford changed the boy's name to Christopher Crawford.
After eighteen years, Crawford's contract with MGM ended with a joint agreement on June 29, 1943. In lieu of the last remaining film under his contract, MGM bought him $ 100,000. During World War II, he was a member of the American Women Volunteer Service.
Move to Warner Brothers
For $ 500,000, Crawford signed a contract with Warner Brothers for a three-movie deal, and was placed on the payroll on July 1, 1943. His first studio movie was Hollywood Canteen (1944), all- enhancers who worked with him with some of the other top movie stars at the time. Crawford said one of the main reasons he signed a contract with Warner Brothers was because he wanted to play the character "Mattie" in the proposed 1944 movie version of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome (1911).
He wanted to play the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945), but Bette Davis was the studio's first choice. However, Davis changed his role. Director Michael Curtiz did not want Crawford to play that role, and he even lobbied for casting Barbara Stanwyck. Warner Bros went against the Curtiz, and threw Crawford in the film. Throughout the entire film production, Curtiz criticized Crawford. He has been quoted as saying to Jack L. Warner, "He came here with a high air and a fucking shoulder pad... Why should I waste my time steering that already?" Curtiz demanded that Crawford prove his appropriateness by taking a screen test. She agreed. After the test, Curtiz agreed to cast Crawford. Mildred Pierce is a critical and commercial success. This epitomizes the fertile visual style and the sensibility of the hard film that defines the Warner Bros film of the late forties, resulting in Crawford the Academy Award for Best Actress in the Main Role.
The success of Mildred Pierce revived the Crawford film career. For several years, he starred in what he called "a series of first-rate melodrama". The next film is Humoresque (1946), starring John Garfield, a romantic drama about the love affair between older women and younger men. She starred alongside Van Heflin at
Upon the completion of This Dangerous Woman (1952), the Crawford film called her "worst", she requested to be released from the Warner Brothers contract. By this time, he felt the Warners lost interest in him, and he decided it was time to move on. Later that same year, he received his third and final Academy Award nomination for Sudden Fear for RKO Radio Pictures. In 1953, he appeared in his last movie for MGM, Torch Song . The film got good reviews, and success was at the box office.
Crawford adopted two more children in 1947 - two girls whom he named Cindy and Cathy.
Radio and television
Crawford worked on The Screen Guild Theater's radio series on January 8, 1939; Good News ; Baby , aired March 2, 1940, at Arch Oboler's Lights Out ; The Word at Everyman Theater (1941); Chained at Lux Radio Theater , and Norman Corwin Document A/777 (1948). She appeared on the episode of the anthology television series in the 1950s, and, in 1959, made the pilot for her series, The Joan Crawford Show.
Al Steele and Pepsi Cola Company
Crawford married her fourth and last husband, Alfred Steele, at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on May 10, 1955. Crawford and Steele met at a party in 1950, when Steele was an executive at PepsiCo. They renewed their acquaintance at the New Year's Eve party in 1954. Steele, by then, had become President of Pepsi Cola. Alfred Steele will then be named Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi Cola. He traveled extensively on behalf of Pepsi after the wedding. He estimates that he traveled more than 100,000 miles for the company.
Steele died of a heart attack in April 1959. Crawford was initially told that his services were no longer needed. After he told the story to Louella Parsons, Pepsi reversed his position, and Crawford was elected to fill the vacant seat on the board.
Crawford received the sixth annual "Pally Award", which was a bronze Pepsi bottle. It is given to employees making the most significant contribution to the company's sales. In 1973, Crawford was forced to retire from the company on the orders of company executive Don Kendall, whom Crawford referred to over the years as "Fang".
Later career
After the Academy Award nomination performance in 1952 Sudden Fear , Crawford continued to work steadily throughout the rest of the decade. After a ten-year absence, he returned to MGM to star in Torch Song (1953), a musical drama centered on the life of a demanding pianist star who is in love with a blind pianist, played by Michael Wilding. Although the film was massively publicized as Crawford's main comeback, it was ultimately a critical and financial failure, known today for his camp's appeal. In 1954, he starred in the classic cult movie cult of Johnny Guitar, starring Sterling Hayden and Mercedes McCambridge. He also starred in Coastal Girls (1955) with Jeff Chandler, and at Queen Bee (1955) with John Ireland. The following year, he starred in a young Cliff Robertson in Autumn Leaves (1956), and filmed the lead role in The Story of Esther Costello (1957), starring Rossano Brazzi. Crawford, left without a penny after the death of Alfred Steele, received a small role in The Best of Everything (1959). Though she is not a movie star, she received positive reviews. Crawford would then refer to that role as one of his personal favorites. However, in the early 1960s, Crawford's status in the film has dropped dramatically.
Crawford starred as Blanche Hudson, an old, defective A-list movie star living in the fear of his psychotic sister Jane, in a highly successful psychological thriller What Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Despite the tension of previous actresses, Crawford reportedly suggested Bette Davis for Jane's role. The two stars publicly stated that there was no feud between them. The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford each realized how important the film was to their respective careers, and commented, "Just to say they really hate each other, but they really behave perfectly."
After the filming is complete, their public comments against each other push their animosity into a lifelong dispute. The film was a huge success, recovering the cost within eleven days of its national release, and temporarily reviving Crawford's career. Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Jane Hudson. Crawford secretly contacts each of the other Oscar nominees in the category (Katharine Hepburn, Lee Remick, Geraldine Page, and Anne Bancroft, all East Coast-based actresses), to let them know that if they can not attend the ceremony she will being happy to receive an Oscar on their behalf; all agree. Both Davis and Crawford were backstage when the missed Anne Bancroft was announced as the winner, and Crawford received the award on his behalf. Davis claimed for the rest of his life that Crawford had campaigned against him, Crawford's accusations were denied.
That same year, Crawford starred as Lucy Harbin in the horror mystery of William Castle Strait-Jacket (1964). Robert Aldrich ditched Crawford and Davis at Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). After Davis's harassment campaign at a location in Louisiana, Crawford returned to Hollywood, and entered the hospital. After a prolonged absence, in which Crawford was accused of ill-fitting, Aldrich was forced to replace him with Olivia de Havilland. Crawford confessed to breaking, saying, "I heard the news of my replacement on the radio, lying in my hospital bed... I cried for nine hours." Crawford harbored a grudge against Davis and Aldrich for the rest of his life, saying of Aldrich, "He is a man who loves evil, horrendous, vile," Aldrich replied, "If the shoes fit, wear, and I love Miss Crawford ". Despite being replaced, Crawford's short footage made him into a movie, when he was seen sitting in a taxi in a wide shot.
In 1965, he plays Amy Nelson on I Saw What You Did, another William Castle vehicle. She starred as Monica Rivers in horror horror movie Herman Cohen Berserk! (1967). After the release of the movie, Crawford became a guest star as herself at The Lucy Show. This episode, "Lucy and the Lost Star", first aired on February 26, 1968. Crawford fought during the rehearsals, and drank hard, leading the serial star Lucille Ball to suggest replacing him with Gloria Swanson. However, Crawford was the perfect letter on the day of the show, including Charleston dancing, and received two standing ovations from the studio audience.
In October 1968, 29-year-old daughter of Crawford Christina (who was acting in New York at the CBS The Secret Storm soap opera), needed immediate medical attention for a broken ovarian tumor. Despite the fact that Christina's character was 28 years old, and Crawford was in his sixties, Crawford offered to play his part until Christina was good enough to return, with producer Gloria Monty happily agreeing. Although Crawford succeeded in training, he lost his composure while recording, and the directors and producers were left struggling to collect the necessary footage.
Crawford's appearance in the 1969 television movie Night Gallery (which acts as a pilot in the next series) marks one of Steven Spielberg's earliest directing jobs. Crawford made a cameo appearance as himself in the first episode of The Tim Conway Show, which aired on January 30, 1970. He starred in the big screen for the last time, playing Dr. Brockton in the horror science fiction film Herman Cohen Trog (1970), completes a career spanning 45 years and more than eighty films. Crawford made three more television appearances - as Stephanie White in the 1970 episode ("The Nightmare") of The Virginian, and as Joan Fairchild (her last performance) in a 1972 episode ("Dear Joan: We ' Go back to Scare You to Death ') from The Sixth Sense .
Last year
In 1970, Crawford was presented with Cecil B. DeMille Award by John Wayne at the Golden Globes, which was broadcast from Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He also spoke at Stephens College, where he became a student for two months in 1922.
Crawford published his autobiography, A Portrait of Joan , co-written with Jane Kesner Ardmore, in 1962 through Doubleday. Crawford's next book, My Way of Life , was published in 1971 by Simon & amp; Schuster. Those who expect a child are disappointed, though the meticulous Crawford way is revealed in his advice on care, clothes, exercise, and even food storage. After his death, one was found in photographs of his John F. Kennedy apartment, which he selected in the 1960 presidential election.
In September 1973, Crawford moved from a 22-G apartment to a smaller apartment next door (22-H) at Imperial House, 150 East 69th Street. His last public appearance was made on September 23, 1974, at a party honoring his old friend Rosalind Russell in the New York Rainbow Room. Russell had breast cancer and arthritis at the time. When Crawford looked at the unattractive photographs that appeared in the newspaper the next day, he said, "If that's what I see, then they will not see me again." Crawford canceled all public appearances, began reducing interviews, and left his apartment diminishing. Dental problems, including surgery that made him need treatment all the time, infected him from 1972 to mid 1975. While on antibiotics for this problem in October 1974, his drinking caused him to faint, slip, and attack his face. The incident frightened him to stop drinking, though he insisted that it was because he was returning to Christian Science. This incident was recorded in a series of letters sent to his insurance company stored in a pile of files on the 3rd floor of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; it's also documented by Carl Johnnes in an actress biography, Joan Crawford: The Last Years .
When it came to personal politics, Crawford aligned himself as a very supportive Democrat, and admired the administration of John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He once said: "The Democratic Party is one I've always observed, I've fought my life hard since I was born, and I'm honored to be part of something that focuses on working-class citizens and shapes it into a proud specimen. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Kennedy has done so much in this regard for the two generations they won in their careers. "
Death and inheritance
On May 8, 1977, Crawford handed over his beloved Shih Tzu, "Princess of Lotus Blossom", too weak to take care of him. Crawford died two days later at his apartment in New York because of a heart attack. A funeral was held at Campbell Funeral Home, New York, on May 13, 1977. In his will, signed on 28 October 1976, Crawford left his two youngest children, Cindy and Cathy, $ 77,500 each from his $ 2,000 reality.
He explicitly crossed out the oldest two, Christina and Christopher: "It is my intention not to make provision here for my son, Christopher, or my daughter, Christina, for reasons already known to them." He also did not leave to his niece, Joan Lowe (1933-1999, born Joan Crawford LeSueur, the only child of her estranged brother, Hal). Crawford left the money for his favorite charity: US. New York, Home Motion Picture, American Cancer Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association, American Heart Association, and Wiltwyck School for Boys.
A memorial service was held for Crawford at the All-Life Unitarian Church on Lexington Avenue in New York on May 16, 1977, and was attended by, among other things, his old Hollywood friend Myrna Loy. Another memorial service, hosted by George Cukor, was held on June 24 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Mobile Image and Movement Academy in Beverly Hills. Crawford was cremated, and his ashes were placed in the basement with his fourth and final husband, Alfred Steele, at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
Joan Crawford's hand prints and footprints are immortalized on the front page of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1752 Vine Street for her contribution in the film industry. Playboy listed Crawford as # 84 of "100 Sexiest Women of the 20th Century". Crawford was also voted the tenth greatest female star of the classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.
Mommie Dearest
In November 1978, Christina Crawford published Mommie Dearest, which contained allegations that her late adopted mother was emotionally and physically abusive to Christina and her brother Christopher because she was more interested in her career than being a mother. Many of Crawford's friends and colleagues, including Van Johnson, Ann Blyth, Myrna Loy, Katharine Hepburn, Cesar Romero, Gary Gray, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Crawford's first husband), and two other Crawford girls - Cathy and Cindy - denounced the book, firmly denying any abuse. But others, including Betty Hutton, Helen Hayes, James MacArthur (Hayes's son), June Allyson, Liz Smith, Rex Reed, and Vincent Sherman claimed they had witnessed some form of abusive behavior. Crawford's secretary, Jeri Binder Smith, confirmed Christina's account. Mommie Dearest became a best-seller, and was made into a biography of 1981 Mommie Dearest , starring Faye Dunaway as Crawford.
In popular culture
The feud between Crawford and Bette Davis is depicted in Shaun Considine's 1989 book, Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud . It was sparked by competition over film roles, Academy Awards, and Nada Franchising, Davis co-star in 1935's Dangerous .
The Crawford-Davis competition is the subject of the first season of 2017 from the anthology television series FX Feud , subtitle Bette and Joan . Crawford is played by Jessica Lange; Davis by Susan Sarandon.
Movieography
Radio appearance
See also
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations Autofography
-
- (1962). Joan's Portrait: Joan Crawford's Autobiography . Doubleday. ISBN: 978-1-258-17238-1. - - (1971). The Way of My Life . Simon & amp; Schuster. ISBN: 978-0-671-78568-0.
- Joan Crawford on Broadway Internet Database
- Joan Crawford in the TCM Movie Database
- Joan Crawford at AllMovie
- Biography quotes March 2008, VanityFair.com
- Joan Crawford on Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- Joan Crawford's Profile, Virtual-History.com
- Joan Crawford Award at Brandeis University
- Joan Crawford's paper, 1932-1976, held by the Billy Rose Theater Division, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Note
References
Bibliography
Source
Further reading
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments