🎬 Movies Mates PEOPLE
Joan Crawford
Acting
Biography
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 1906 – May 10, 1977) was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and …
Read full biography
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 1906 – May 10, 1977) was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison". After an absence of nearly two years from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1955, she became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company, through her marriage to company president Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973. She continued acting in film and television regularly through the 1960s, when her performances became fewer; after the release of the horror film Trog in 1970, Crawford retired from the screen. Following a public appearance in 1974, after which unflattering photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life. She became more and more reclusive until her death in 1977.
Biography expanded
BODY OF WORK
Joan Crawford's Filmography
Select any movie to open its full Movies Mates details page.
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
as Self (archive footage)
The Green Fog
Bette and Joan
as Self (archive footage)
Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?
as Self (archive footage)
Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other
as Self (archive footage)
Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and 'Johnny Guitar'
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
The Shirley Eder Tapes
as Self
Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
Possessed
as (archive footage)
Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
Brigitte Bardot: The Icon of France
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
as Self (archive footage)
Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
as Various Roles (archive footage)
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
as Self (archive)
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
as Self (archive footage)
Tim Conway: Timeless Comedy
as Self (archive footage)
Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition
as Self (archive footage)
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
as Self (archive footage) (voice)
42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage
as Self (archive footage)
The Damned Don't Cry: The Crawford Formula - Real and Reel
as Self (archive)
No Poster
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
as Self / Flaemmchen (archive footage)
Complicated Women
as Self (archive footage)
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star
as Self (archive footage)
Battle-Axe: the Making of 'Strait-Jacket'
as Self (archive footage)
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
as Self (archive footage / uncredited)
Joan Crawford: Always the Star
as Self (archive footage)
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
Legends in Light: The Photography of George Hurrell
as Self (archive footage)
The Casting Couch
Biography: Bette Davis — If Looks Could Kill
as Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment! III
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gay! Gay! Hollywood
No Poster
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
as Self
Going Hollywood: The '30s
as (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
as (in "Humoresque") (archive footage)
Showbiz Ballyhoo
as Self (archive footage)
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
Bob Hope's World of Comedy
as (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment!
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death
as Joan Fairchild
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
as Self (archive footage)
Journey to Murder
as Host
Trog
as Dr. Brockton
Night Gallery
as Miss Menlo
Garbo, by Joan Crawford
as Self - Host / Narrator (voice)
Journey to the Unknown
as Self - Host
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
as Self
This was the MARY
as Self/Narrator
Berserk!
as Monica Rivers
The Karate Killers
as Amanda True
The Oscar
as Joan Crawford
I Saw What You Did
as Amy Nelson
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
as Miriam Deering in Car (uncredited)
The Big Parade of Comedy
as Bobby (archive footage)
Della
as Della Chappell
Strait-Jacket
as Lucy Harbin
How to Plan a Movie Murder
as Self
The Caretakers
as Lucretia Terry
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
as Blanche Hudson
Lykke og krone
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
as Self - Janie Barlow (archive footage) (uncredited)
One Must Die
The Best of Everything
as Amanda Farrow
No Poster
Woman on the Run
as Susan Conrad
Zwischen Glück und Krone
as Self (archive footage)
Strange Witness
as Ruth Marshall
The Story of Esther Costello
as Margaret Landi
Autumn Leaves
as Millicent Wetherby
Queen Bee
as Eva Phillips
Female on the Beach
as Lynn Markham
The Road to Edinburgh
as Mary Andrews
A Star Is Born World Premiere
as Self
Johnny Guitar
as Vienna
Torch Song
as Jenny Stewart
At Home with Joan Crawford
as Self
Sudden Fear
as Myra Hudson Blaine
This Woman Is Dangerous
as Elizabeth Austin
Goodbye, My Fancy
as Agatha Reed
Harriet Craig
as Harriet Craig
The Damned Don't Cry
as Ethel Whitehead
It's a Great Feeling
as Joan Crawford (uncredited)
Flamingo Road
as Lane Bellamy
Daisy Kenyon
as Daisy Kenyon
Through Many Windows
as Self - Narrator
Possessed
as Louise Howell
Humoresque
as Helen Wright
Blow-Ups of 1946
as Self
Mildred Pierce
as Mildred Pierce
Hollywood Canteen
as Self
Above Suspicion
as Frances Myles
Reunion in France
as Michele de la Becque
They All Kissed the Bride
as Margaret Johanna 'M.J.' Drew
Joan Crawford's Home Movies
as Self
When Ladies Meet
as Mary 'Minnie' Howard
A Woman's Face
as Anna Holm
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
as Self
Susan and God
as Susan Trexel
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
as Self
Strange Cargo
as Julie
The Women
as Crystal Allen
From the Ends of the Earth
as Self
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8
as Joan Crawford
The Ice Follies of 1939
as Mary McKay
The Shining Hour
as Olivia Riley Linden
Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 6
as Self
Mannequin
as Jessie Cassidy
The Bride Wore Red
as Anni Pavlovitch
The Romance of Celluloid
as Self (archive footage)
Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12
as Self (uncredited)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
as Mrs. Fay Cheyney
Love on the Run
as Sally Parker
The Gorgeous Hussy
as Margaret "Peggy" O'Neal
I Live My Life
as Kay Bentley
No More Ladies
as Marcia Townsend Warren
Forsaking All Others
as Mary Clay
Chained
as Diane Lovering
Sadie McKee
as Sadie
Dancing Lady
as Janie Barlow
Fast Workers
as Ivy Stevens (Archive Footage) (Uncredited)
Today We Live
as Diana 'Ann' Boyce-Smith
Rain
as Sadie Thompson
Grand Hotel
as Flämmchen
Letty Lynton
as Letty Lynton
Possessed
as Marian Martin aka 'Mrs. Moreland'
This Modern Age
as Valentine 'Val' Winters
We’re Switching to Hollywood
as Self
Laughing Sinners
as Ivy 'Bunny' Stevens
The Stolen Jools
as Joan Crawford
Dance, Fools, Dance
as Bonnie Jordan
Paid
as Mary Turner
Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 1
as Self
Our Blushing Brides
as Geraldine 'Gerry' March
Montana Moon
as Joan
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
as Self
Untamed
as Alice "Bingo" Dowling
Our Modern Maidens
as Billie Brown
The Duke Steps Out
as Susie
Dream of Love
as Adrienne Lecouvreur
Our Dancing Daughters
as Diana 'Di' Medford
Four Walls
as Frieda
Across to Singapore
as Priscilla Crowninshield
Rose-Marie
as Rose-Marie
The Law of the Range
as Betty Dallas
West Point
as Betty Channing
Spring Fever
as Allie Monte
Twelve Miles Out
as Jane
The Unknown
as Nanon Zanzi
The Understanding Heart
as Monica Dale
The Taxi Dancer
as Joselyn Poe
Winners of the Wilderness
as René Contrecoeur
Bardelys the Magnificent
as Court Gossip (uncredited)
Paris
as The Girl
The Boob
as Jane
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
as Betty Burton
Sally, Irene and Mary
as Irene O'Dare
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
as Chariot Race Spectator (uncredited)
The Only Thing
as Party Guest (uncredited)
Old Clothes
as Mary Riley
Time, the Comedian
as Art Student (as Lucille LeSueur)
The Midshipman
as Extra - Driver of Police Car (uncredited)
The Circle
as Young Lady Catherine
Pretty Ladies
as Bobby
The Merry Widow
as Ballroom Dancer (uncredited)
A Slave of Fashion
as Mannequin (uncredited)
Proud Flesh
as Party Guest (uncredited)
1925 Studio Tour
as Self
Lady of the Night
as Body Double for Norma Shearer
And One Was Loyal
as Ann Howard
Rebel Range
as Stella Faring