Actor · Acting

Joan Crawford

Born 1906-03-23

Died 1977-05-10

📍 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 178

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

as Self (archive footage)

as Self (archive footage)

Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other

as Self (archive footage)

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

as Self (archive footage)

Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?

as Self (archive footage)

Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe

as Self (archive footage)

Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture

Brigitte Bardot: The Icon of France

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

as Self (archive footage)

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

as Various Roles (archive footage)

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

as Self (archive footage)

Tim Conway: Timeless Comedy

Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition

as Self (archive footage)

42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage

as Self (archive footage)

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

as Self (archive)

Complicated Women

as Self (archive footage)

Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star

as Self (archive footage)

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

as Self (archive footage)

Lon Chaney: A thousand faces

as Self (archive footage / uncredited)

Joan Crawford: Always the Star

as Self (archive footage)

The Casting Couch

Biography: Bette Davis — If Looks Could Kill

as Self (archive footage)

That's Entertainment! III

as (archive footage)

Gay! Gay! Hollywood

Going Hollywood: The '30s

as (archive footage)

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

as (in "Humoresque") (archive footage)

Showbiz Ballyhoo

as Self (archive footage)

Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!

as Self (archive footage)

That's Entertainment, Part II

as (archive footage)

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

as Self (archive footage)

That's Entertainment!

as (archive footage)

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

as Joan Fairchild

The Sixth Sense

as Joan Fairchild

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

as Self (archive footage)

Great Performances

Journey to Murder

as Dr. Brockton

Garbo, by Joan Crawford

as Self - Host / Narrator (voice)

Journey to the Unknown

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

The Name of the Game

as Committee Member (uncredited)

This was the MARY

as Self/Narrator

as Monica Rivers

The Karate Killers

as Joan Crawford

I Saw What You Did

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

as Miriam Deering in Car (uncredited)

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

The Big Parade of Comedy

as Bobby (archive footage)

as Della Chappell

How to Plan a Movie Murder

as Lucretia Terry

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

as Blanche Hudson

as Joan Crawford

The Merv Griffin Show

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

as Stephanie White

as Morgan Harper

The Best of Everything

as Amanda Farrow

Zwischen Glück und Krone

Strange Witness

as Ruth Marshall

The Story of Esther Costello

as Margaret Landi

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

as Stella Faring

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

as Sarah / Melanie Davidson Hobbs

as Millicent Wetherby

as Eva Phillips

Female on the Beach

as Lynn Markham

The Road to Edinburgh

as Mary Andrews

A Star Is Born World Premiere

as Jenny Stewart

At Home with Joan Crawford

General Electric Theater

General Electric Theater

as Ruth Marshall

General Electric Theater

as Mary Andrews

as Myra Hudson Blaine

This Woman Is Dangerous

as Elizabeth Austin

Goodbye, My Fancy

as Harriet Craig

The Colgate Comedy Hour

The Damned Don't Cry

as Ethel Whitehead

What's My Line?

It's a Great Feeling

as Joan Crawford (uncredited)

as Lane Bellamy

as Daisy Kenyon

Through Many Windows

as Self - Narrator

as Louise Howell

as Helen Wright

Blow-Ups of 1946

as Mildred Pierce

Hollywood Canteen

Above Suspicion

as Frances Myles

Reunion in France

as Michele de la Becque

They All Kissed the Bride

as Margaret Johanna 'M.J.' Drew

Joan Crawford's Home Movies

When Ladies Meet

as Mary 'Minnie' Howard

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound

as Susan Trexel

Hollywood: Style Center of the World

as Crystal Allen

From the Ends of the Earth

Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8

as Joan Crawford

The Ice Follies of 1939

The Shining Hour

as Olivia Riley Linden

Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 6

as Jessie Cassidy

The Bride Wore Red

as Anni Pavlovitch

The Romance of Celluloid

as Self (archive footage)

Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12

as Self (uncredited)

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

as Mrs. Fay Cheyney

Love on the Run

as Sally Parker

The Gorgeous Hussy

as Margaret "Peggy" O'Neal

as Marcia Townsend Warren

Forsaking All Others

as Diane Lovering

as Janie Barlow

as Ivy Stevens (Archive Footage) (Uncredited)

as Diana 'Ann' Boyce-Smith

as Sadie Thompson

as Letty Lynton

as Marian Martin aka 'Mrs. Moreland'

This Modern Age

as Valentine 'Val' Winters

We’re Switching to Hollywood

Laughing Sinners

as Ivy 'Bunny' Stevens

The Stolen Jools

as Joan Crawford

Dance, Fools, Dance

as Bonnie Jordan

Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 1

Our Blushing Brides

as Geraldine 'Gerry' March

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

as Alice "Bingo" Dowling

Our Modern Maidens

as Billie Brown

The Duke Steps Out

as Adrienne Lecouvreur

Our Dancing Daughters

as Diana 'Di' Medford

Across to Singapore

as Priscilla Crowninshield

The Law of the Range

as Betty Dallas

as Betty Channing

Twelve Miles Out

The Understanding Heart

The Taxi Dancer

Winners Of The Wilderness

as René Contrecoeur

Bardelys the Magnificent

as Court Gossip (uncredited)

The Merry Widow

as Ballroom Dancer (uncredited)

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp

as Betty Burton

Sally, Irene and Mary

as Irene O'Dare

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)

as Party Guest (uncredited)

Time, the Comedian

as Art Student (as Lucille LeSueur)

as Extra - Driver of Police Car (uncredited)

as Young Lady Catherine

A Slave of Fashion

as Mannequin (uncredited)

as Party Guest (uncredited)

1925 Studio Tour

Lady of the Night

as Body Double for Norma Shearer

And One Was Loyal

as Stella Faring