Biography of Joan Crawford

Interpretive sensitivity

March 23, 1904
May 10, 1977
Shining star of Hollywood movies from the golden years, Joan Crawford had an intriguing sensuality and an engaging dramatic charge: on the screen brought mainly characters of independent women and brash, linked to healthy American values but that they put their feet on his head, and who use their sex appeal and their confidence to make their way in life and work. At the bottom of the real Joan Crawford was just this. Born as Lucille Fay Le Sueur in San Antonio, Texas (USA), March 23, 1904. Tall and good-looking, very young Debuts as a dancer, he participates then on Broadway in the musical comedy "Innocent Eyes" then, after winning a dance competition, is cast in Hollywood, that the Lance as diva in the last years of the silent film era.
After some small part in minor films, with "sisters" (Our Dancing Daughters, 1928) by Harry Beaumont, Joan Crawford plays his trump card: in this film makes the most successful version of the young ballerina of the jazz age determined to live life as he sees fit. It is now a star has twenty-four, a three-year contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, now started to become the perfect product of the Hollywood studio system. To enter the beautiful world of Hollywood marries the young actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., managing to participate so at parties held at Pickfair, domain of Fairbanks sr. and Mary Pickford.
Joan Crawford over time buy a remarkable elegance and a more refined charm, but mostly perfected his acting, making it more multifaceted. The screen decides to show up with her meaty lips underlined heavily by abundant lipstick, the beautiful eyes fixed in such a way as to make them appear larger, the rest of the face made similar to a classical form. The result is a new, mature Joan Crawford, ready to interpret those female characters that will bring more famous, romantic women and daring, that his interpretive sensitivity makes suffered tragic heroines.
In the ' 30 's, after Greta Garbo, the first diva of MGM, beloved by both men and women. Among his best roles of this period include the uninhibited stenographer who lets himself be wooing by a robber baron (played by John Barrymore) in "Grand Hotel" (Grand Hotel, 1932) by Edmund Goulding, fickle and inconstant girl who, abandoned at the altar, can hardly go wrong marriage twice in tasty "La donna è mobile" (Forsaking All Others, 1934) by W.S. Van Dyke , one of the many films where it teamed up with Clark Gable, perky's star dancer who is facing the hostility of relatives of his neo-husband in the melodrama "Obsession" (The Shining Hour, 1938) by Frank Borzage, perfume and opportunist who steals her husband to an upper-class woman in the satirical "Women" (The Women, 1939) by George Cukor.
In the early ' 40 's even in the gap when interpreting the woman marked by a childhood accident that deformed her face in the evocative "woman's face" (A Woman's Face, 1941) by George Cukor, but soon realizes that very account shall not be taken over at MGM she, especially because of his "Advanced" age and the poor box office booster that is starting to have its name. So the actress left the Metro for Warner Bros. Here gets big hit with painful interpretation of the divorced woman struggling with the problems of a teenage daughter in engaging noir "Mildred Pierce" (Mildred Pierce, 1945) by Michael Curtiz, for which he receives an Oscar for best actress.
This will be a great chance for his career, which has managed to fully demonstrate his extraordinary interpretative, representing the sorrow with realistic tones. Becomes more and more a model for American women, for style and the tenacity with which the screen faces the tragedies of life, always emerged victorious. As soon as the television begins to invade the land of the show, viewers of his films are thinning, but in 1952 the actress gives new evidence of vitality as a thriller, "I know you won't kill me" (Sudden Fear) by David Miller, and when he returned to MGM will perform in the musical "the mask and the heart" (Torch Song, 1953) of Charles Walters, in which In addition to acting, shows off a silhouette still enviable. In 1954 the Centre again with her portrayal of Vienna, the owner of a saloon in western "Johnny Guitar" (Johnny Guitar) by Nicholas Ray, an unusual opera that marked a turning point in the genre.
After taking part in some mediocre melodrama, Joan Crawford relives a new moment of international success playing the ex-movie star of the bullying victim paralytic crazy sister in truculent "whatever happened to Baby Jane?" (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962) by Robert Aldrich, next to its historic enemy, Bette Davis. The film shows her name to the attention of Hollywood and the public. In the following years the actress is used in a number of films of the mid-level terror, including at least five headless bodies "(Strait Racket, 1963) and" the eyes of others "(" I Saw What You Did, 1966), both by William Castle. In 1970, after a brief participation in the mediocre horror "terror of London" (Trog), Joan Crawford retires from acting to follow the advertising campaign for Pepsi Cola, which was an important Executive Alfred Steele, her fourth and last husband. Long a victim of nerve problems and alcoholism, the last time the actress has a mystical crisis that drives her to engage actively in a religious sect. The Joan Crawford May 10, 1977 died of pancreatic cancer. The year after his death, his adopted daughter Christina, bitter for having been excluded from Testament, writes a disturbing book revelatory entitled "mommie dearest" (original "Mommie Dearest"), which gives an image of a woman and mother of Crawford unedifying. In a short time the book becomes a best-seller, and in 1981 it made film directed by Frank Perry, which takes advantage of the splendid portrayal of Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.