JOAN CRAWFORD Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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JOAN CRAWFORD

Name: Joan Crawford.                                                                           
Birth name: Lucille Fay LeSueur                                                               
Born: 23 March 1905 San Antonio, Texas, USA                                                   
Died: 10 May 1977 New York City, New York, USA                                                 
                                                                                               
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; (March 23, 1905 – May 10, 1977)                     
was an Academy Award-winning American actress. The American Film Institute named               
Crawford among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time, ranking her at number 10.               
                                                                                               
Starting as a dancer, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
Studios in 1925 and played in small parts. By the end of the '20s, as her                     
popularity grew, she became famous as a youthful flapper. At the beginning of                 
the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled that of fellow MGM colleagues Norma Shearer                 
and Greta Garbo. She was often cast in movies in which she played hardworking                 
young women who eventually found romance and financial success. These "rags to                 
riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences. Women,                         
particularly, seemed to identify with her characters' struggles. By the end of                 
the decade, Crawford remained one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars, and               
one of the highest paid women in the U.S.                                                     
                                                                                               
Moving to Warner Bros. in 1943, Crawford won an Academy Award for her                         
performance in Mildred Pierce and achieved some of the best reviews of her                     
career in the following years. In 1955, she became involved with PepsiCo, the                 
company run by her last husband, Alfred Steele. Crawford was elected to fill his               
vacancy on the board of directors after his death in 1959, but was forcibly                   
retired in 1973. She continued acting regularly into the 1960s, when her                       
performances became fewer, and retired from the screen in 1970 after the release               
of the horror film Trog.