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Joan Crawford, 1904-1977
Born San Antonio, Texas
One of Hollywood's most glamorous stars, Joan Crawford lived the rags-to-riches story line she so often portrayed on camera, escaping a hardscrabble youth by parlaying her talents as a dancer into a pioneering motion picture career. This caricature for the cover of a celebrity magazine exaggerates the large, expressive eyes she used to dramatic effect in the eighty films she made between 1925 and 1970. Dismissed as "box office poison" in 1938, Crawford regained her place in the spotlight through steely determination and shrewd self-reinvention, winning an Academy Award for her performance in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce. Following the death of her fourth husband, Crawford took his place on the Board of Directors of Pepsi-Cola from 1959 to 1973. Her portrayal as an abusive parent in the book Mommie Dearest (1978), written by the eldest of her four adopted children, tarnished her posthumous reputation.
Joseph Grant, 1932 |