Jo Van Fleet (1914 - 1996)

Actress. She won an Academy Award in 1955 for “East of Eden”. She also won a Tony award for her role in “Trip to Bountiful”. (bio by: Ron Moody)

Joachim Gottschalk (1904 - 1941)

Actor. One of Germany’s most popular young actor’s, Gottschalk played in seven movies. In 1941, the Gestapo accused his wife (actress Meta Wolff) of rassenschande (racial defilement), giving her and her eight year old son one day to pack and leave the country. (bio by: MC)  Family links:  Spouse:  Meta Wolff Gottshalk (1902 – 1941)* […]

Joan Aiken (1924 - 2004)

Joan Aiken produced more than a hundred books, including more than a dozen collections of fantasy stories, plays and poems, and modern and historical novels for adults and children. She was a lifelong fan of ghost stories, particularly those of M. R. James, Fitz James O’Brien and Nugent Barker. Some of her books focus on […]

Joan Alexander Stanton (1915 - 2009)

Actress. Primarily a radio performer, she is remembered for portraying reporter Lois Lane in over 1,600 episodes of “Superman” during the 1940s. Born Louise Abras, she was raised in Brooklyn after her father’s early death and took the “Joan” half of her professional name to honor Joan Crawford, though the origin of “Alexander” is unclear. […]

Joan Banks (1918 - 1998)

Actress. Born in Petersburg, West Virginia, she became a regular on the 1930s radio series “Gangbusters”, where she met and married actor Frank Lovejoy. For feature films, she appeared in dramas with her husband in “Cry Danger” (1951) and “Washington Story” (1952). She became better known as a supporting actor on various television series such […]

Joan Barclay (1914 - 2002)

Actress. Born Mary Elizabeth Greear, she made her screen debut in “The Gaucho,” which starred Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Later she co-starred in several B-Westerns including: “Six-Gun Rhythm” with Tex Fletcher; and “Riding the Wind.” Also she was the heroine in serials such as “The Shadow of Chinatown” and “Blake of Scotland Yard.”  (bio by: MC) […]

Joan Bennett (1910 - 1990)

Actress. The youngest of the three acting daughters of prominent stage and screen star Richard Bennett, she was the last of the sisters to enter films seriously, but she had the longest and, in retrospect, the most meaningful career of any of her family. Joan, like Constance and Barbara, was a gorgeous woman, slender and […]

Joan Blondell (1906 - 1979)

Joan Blondell Actress. In a fifty year career, Joan Blondell juggled a duel career while acting, dancing and singing in some 80 films, she had a very successful stage career with many appearance on Broadway. Her early acting demeanor was brassy, wisecracking and happy go lucky, but after leaving Warner Brothers, becoming an independent actress, […]

Joan Brickhill (1924 - 2014)

Actress. Called the “First Lady Of South African Musical Theatre”, she is remembered for starring in dozens of stage productions. Raised within the show business milieu, she made her professional bow at two and proved to be one of the rare child prodigies with staying power; over the coming decades she was a constant presence […]

Joan Brossa (1919 - 1998)

For him, expression had priority over content, and Joan Brossa managed to give his poetry the appearance of plays on words. His lyrical work is connected with the theatre while the totality of his literature (more of 80 books, all written in the Catalan language) is impregnated with the theatrical dimension as he always employed […]

Joan Caulfield (1922 - 1991)

Born Beatrice Joan Caulfield while her family resided in East Orange, New Jersey, she moved to West Orange during childhood but continued attending Miss Beard’s School in Orange, New Jersey. During her teenage years, the family moved to New York City where Joan eventually attended Columbia University. Caulfield was the niece of Genevieve Caulfield, who received […]

Joan Cohn (1911 - 1996)

Actress in several films of the 1930s and 40s. Real name Elizabeth Rosiland Miller. Married to studio mogul Harry Cohn until his death in 1958. Later married British actor Laurence Harvey.  Family links:  Spouses:  Harry Cohn (1891 – 1958)  Harry Karl (1914 – 1982)  Laurence Harvey (1928 – 1973)  Children:  Jobella Cohn (____ – 1943)* […]

Joan Crawford (1904 - 1977)

Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Thomas E. LeSueur (January 21, 1868 – January 1, 1938), a laundry laborer of English and French Huguenot ancestry and Anna Bell Johnson (November 29, 1884 – August 15, 1958), Texas-born, of Swedish and Irish descent. Her elder siblings were Daisy […]

Joan Crawford (1904 - 1977)

Joan Crawford From silent star to camp queen, Joan Crawford and her astonishing 45-year film career are the stuff of a Gatsby-esque legend of survival and reinvention. Simultaneously glorious, tragic, tawdry, and hype-filled, her story is the very embodiment of the real version of the American Dream. Logically, Joan Crawford shouldn’t have made it to begin with. She was ignored […]

Joan Davis (1907 - 1961)

Joan Davis’ first film was a short subject for Educational Pictures called Way Up Thar (1935), featuring a then-unknown Roy Rogers. Educational’s distribution company, Twentieth Century-Fox, signed Davis for feature films. Tall and lanky, with a comically flat speaking voice, she became known as one of the few female physical clowns of her time. Perhaps […]

Joan Diener (1930 - 2006)

Joan Diener (February 24, 1930 – May 13, 2006) was an American theatre actress and singer with a three-and-a-half-octave range. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Joan Diener majored in psychology at Sarah Lawrence College and moonlighted as an actress while still a student. She made her Broadway debut in the 1948 revue Small Wonder, choreographed by Gower […]

Joan Dowling (1928 - 1954)

British Actress. Film credits include “Women of Twilight,” “24 Hours of a Woman’s Life,” “Pool of London,” “The Magic Box,” “Murder Without Crime,””Train of Events,” “For Them That Trespass,” “Landfall,” “A Man’s Affair,” “No Room at the Inn,” “Hue and Cry,” and “Bond Street.” She was married to British actor Harry Fowler since 1951. Cause […]

Joan Edwards (1919 - 1981)

Composer, Songwriter, Actress, Pianist. Edwards appeared in the films, “Hit Parade of 1937” (1937), and “Screen Snapshots: Holiday In Las Vegas” (1947). She wrote the songs, “Anytime” “And So It Ended” “I Love Bosco” “Darn It Baby” “That’s Love” “You Can’t Take It With You When You Go” “Do You Still Feel The Same?” and […]

Joan Fontaine (1917 - 2013)

Joan de Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan, to English parents. Her father, Walter Augustus de Havilland (August 31, 1872 – May 23, 1968), was educated at the University of Cambridge and served as an English professor at the Imperial University in Tokyo before becoming a patent attorney with a practice in Japan. Her mother, […]

Joan Francis (1920 - 1995)

Actress. Born in 1920, she started her career in musical comedies and dramatic plays. Working in the repertory companies with actors like Doris Speed, Patricia Phoenix, Bernard Youens and Arthur Leslie, she honed her craft as an actress. In 1960 she tried out for the role of Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street but Pat Phoenix […]

Joan Geraldine Bennett (1910 - 1990)

Actress. The youngest of the three acting daughters of prominent stage and screen star Richard Bennett, she was the last of the sisters to enter films seriously, but she had the longest and, in retrospect, the most meaningful career of any of her family. Joan, like Constance and Barbara, was a gorgeous woman, slender and […]

Joan Hackett (1934 - 1983)

Joan Hackett Joan Hackett was never one of your conventional leading ladies. Directors sometimes found her difficult to work with. Yet, this strong-minded perfectionist had an unquenchable individuality that came through in her performances and she never hesitated being unglamorous whenever the role demanded. Born of an Italian mother and an Irish-American father in East […]

Joan Hernández Pijuan (1931 - 2005)

Artist. He was born and died in Barcelona. He is considered one of the most important spanish contemporary artists. He studied engraving and lithography in Paris, and his work often was included in abstract style. He was named academic of Fine Arts in 1997 and was awarded with the National Award of Graphic Art in […]

Joan Hickson (1906 - 1998)

Born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, Joan Hickson was a daughter of shoe manufacturer Alfred Harold Hickson and his wife, Edith Mary Bogle. She made her stage debut in 1927, and for several years worked throughout the United Kingdom and achieved success playing comedic, often eccentric characters in London’s West End, including the role of the cockney […]

Joan Kroc (1928 - 2003)

Joan Kroc was born on August 27, 1928, in West St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father, Charles Smart Mansfield, was a store keeper, later a railroad telegraph operator and salesman. Her mother, Gladys Bonnebelle Mansfield was born April 5, 1906 in Luck, Wisconsin to Herman Conrad Peterson and his wife Emma Bonnebelle. Joan’s mother was an […]

Joan Leslie (1925 - 2015)

Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel was born on January 26, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, she was the youngest child of John and Agnes Brodel. John was a bank clerk and Agnes was a pianist. Leslie’s two older sisters, Betty and Mary Brodel, shared their mother’s musical interest and started to learn how to play instruments […]

Joan Lorring (1926 - 2014)

Actress. She may perhaps be best remembered for playing ‘Bessie Watty’ in the picture “The Corn Is Green” (1945). She received an Academy Award nomination for her effort. Born Mary Magdalene Ellis into a family of Anglo-Russian descent in Hong Kong, she fled with her mother to San Francisco as a result of the Japanese […]

Joan Marsh (1913 - 2000)

Joan Marsh (July 10, 1913 – August 10, 2000), born Nancy Ann Rosher, and briefly known as Dorothy D. Rosher, was an American film actress. Her father was Charles Rosher, an award-winning cinematographer. She was a child actress before becoming an adult thespian. Joan Marsh made her first film appearances as an infant in 1915. She […]

Joan Marshall (1931 - 1992)

Joan Marshall was born Joan Schrepfermann in Chicago, where she was also raised. She began her career as a showgirl in Chicago clubs. After appearing as a dancer in the film The Chicago Kid (1945) and in a part in the television series Have Gun – Will Travel (1958), she moved to California around 1959. […]

Joan of Kent (1328 - 1385)

Joan was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Her father Edmund was the son of King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of Philip III of France. Edmund’s support of his older half-brother, King Edward II of England, placed […]