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Joan Blondell
Age: 73 (passed away Dec. 25th, 1979)
Height: 5' 3"
Birth Place: New York City, New York, USA
Born: Aug. 30th, 1906
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Joan Blondell's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: With blonde hair, big blue eyes and a big smile, Joan was usually cast as the wisecracking working girl who was the lead's best friend. Born into vaudeville to a comic named Eddie, Joan was on the stage when she was three years old. For years, she toured the circuit with her parents and joined a stock company when she was 17. She made her New York debut with the Ziegfeld Follies and appeared in several Broadway productions. She was starring with James Cagney on Broadway in "Penny Arcade" (1929) when Warner Brothers decided to film the play as Sinners' Holiday (1930). Both Cagney and Joan were given the leads, and the film was a success. She would be teamed with Cagney again in The Public Enemy (1931) and Blonde Crazy (1931) among others. In The Office Wife (1930), she stole the scene when she was dressing for work. While Warner Brothers made Cagney a star, Joan never rose to that level. In gangster movies or musicals, her performances were good enough for second leads, but not first lead. In the 1930s, she made a career playing gold-diggers and happy-go-lucky girlfriends. She would be paired with Dick Powell (I) in ten musicals during these years, and they were married for ten years. By 1939, Joan had left Warner Brothers to become an independent actress, but by then, the blonde role was being defined by actresses like Veronica Lake (I). Her work slowed greatly as she went into straight comedy or dramatic roles. Three of her better roles were in Topper Returns (1941), Cry 'Havoc' (1943), and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). By the 50s, Joan would garner an Academy Award nomination for The Blue Veil (1951), but her biggest career successes would be on the stage, including a musical version of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." In 1957, Joan would again appear on the screen as a drunk in Lizzie (1957) and as mature companion to Jayne Mansfield in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). While she would appear in a number of television shows during the 50s and 60s, she had the regular role of Winifred on "The Real McCoys" (1957) during the 1963 season. Her role in the drama The Cincinnati Kid (1965) was well received, but most of her remaining films would be comedies such as Waterhole #3 (1967) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971). Still in demand for TV, she was cast as Lottie on "Here Come the Brides" (1968) and as Peggy on "Banyon" (1972).
TRIVIA:
- Her daughter Ellen was born in 1938.
- Measurements: 37-21 1/2-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
- Was nominated for Broadway's 1958 Tony Award as best supporting or featured actress (dramatic) for The Rope Dancers.
- Older sister of actress 'Gloria Blondell' (qv).
- 'June Allyson' (qv) was the step-mother mother of her daughter 'Ellen Powell' (qv) after Allyson married Blondell's ex-husband 'Dick Powell (I)' (qv).
- In 1927, while closing the library she worked at, she was raped by a police officer. He told her he would kill her if she told anyone. She kept her silence for decades, until finally telling her grown daughter. She went public with this in her memoirs.
- Attended the Professional Children's School in New York City.
- Her marriage to theatrical impresario 'Michael Todd (I)' (qv) was an emotional and financial disaster. Todd was a heavy spender who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling (high-stakes bridge was one of his weaknesses) and went through a controversial bankruptcy during their marriage. While continuing to live the high-life on a huge estate in New York's Westchester County, the irresponsible Todd ran through Blondell's savings, and then eventually dumped her for the much younger 'Elizabeth Taylor (I)' (qv).
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