103 Facts About Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway.

Joan Crawford often played hardworking, young women who find romance and financial success.

Joan 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.

Joan Crawford 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.

Joan Crawford withdrew from public life and became increasingly reclusive until her death in 1977.

Joan Crawford adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his birth mother.

Joan Crawford's mother was likely under 20 when her first two children were born.

Joan Crawford had one sister, Daisy, and one brother, Hal LeSueur.

At that time, Joan Crawford was reportedly unaware that Cassin, whom she called "Daddy", was not her biological father; her brother later told her the truth.

Joan Crawford had three surgeries to repair the damage, and for 18 months was unable to attend elementary school or continue dancing lessons.

Joan Crawford later attended Rockingham Academy, as a working student.

Joan Crawford attended Stephens for a few months and then withdrew after she realized that she was not ready for college.

Under the name Lucille LeSueur, Crawford began dancing in the choruses of traveling revues, and was spotted dancing in Detroit by producer Jacob J Shubert.

Joan Crawford wanted additional work, and approached Loews Theaters publicist Nils Granlund.

Granlund immediately wired Joan Crawford, who had returned to her mother's home in Kansas City, with the news; she borrowed $400 for travel expenses.

Joan Crawford appeared in The Circle and Pretty Ladies, starring comedian ZaSu Pitts.

Joan Crawford later said that she wanted her first name to be pronounced Jo-Anne, and that she hated the name Crawford because it sounded like "crawfish", but admitted she "liked the security" that went with the name.

Joan Crawford became a star because Joan Crawford decided to become a star.

Joan Crawford's strategy worked and MGM cast her in the film where she first made an impression on audiences, Edmund Goulding's Sally, Irene and Mary.

Joan Crawford was named one of 1926's WAMPAS Baby Stars, along with Mary Astor, Dolores del Rio, Janet Gaynor, and Fay Wray, among others.

Joan Crawford appeared as a skimpily clad young carnival assistant in The Unknown, starring Lon Chaney, Sr.

Joan Crawford stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anyone else in her career.

In 1928, Joan Crawford starred opposite Ramon Novarro in Across to Singapore, but it was her role as Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters that catapulted her to stardom.

Joan Crawford is doubtless the best example of the flapper, the girl you see in smart night clubs, gowned to the apex of sophistication, toying iced glasses with a remote, faintly bitter expression, dancing deliciously, laughing a great deal, with wide, hurt eyes.

Joan Crawford was among the dozen or more MGM stars included in the movie; she sang the song "Got a Feeling for You" during the film's first act.

Joan Crawford studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Joan Crawford made a successful transition to talkies with her first starring role in the all-talking feature-length film Untamed, co-starring Robert Montgomery.

Joan Crawford's only other notable film of 1931, This Modern Age, was released in August and despite unfavorable reviews was a moderate success.

Joan Crawford later admitted to being nervous during the filming of the movie because she was working with accomplished actors, and that she was disappointed that she had no scenes with one she had admired, the "divine Garbo".

Joan Crawford's performance was panned, and the film was not a success.

Joan Crawford remained on the list for the next several years, last appearing on it in 1936.

Joan Crawford was again teamed with Clark Gable, along with Franchot Tone and Fred Astaire, in the hit Dancing Lady, in which she received top billing.

Joan Crawford next played the title role in Sadie McKee, opposite Tone and Gene Raymond.

Joan Crawford was paired with Gable for the fifth time in Chained, and for the sixth time in Forsaking All Others.

Joan Crawford continued her reign as a popular movie actress well into the mid-1930s.

Joan Crawford next starred in The Gorgeous Hussy, opposite Robert Taylor and Lionel Barrymore, as well as Tone.

In 1937, Joan Crawford was proclaimed the first "Queen of the Movies" by Life magazine.

Joan Crawford unexpectedly slipped from seventh to sixteenth place at the box office that year, and her public popularity began to wane.

Joan Crawford's follow-up movie, Frank Borzage's The Shining Hour, starring Margaret Sullavan and Melvyn Douglas, was well received by critics, but it was a box-office flop.

Joan Crawford made a comeback in 1939 with her role as home-wrecker Crystal Allen in The Women, opposite her professional nemesis, Norma Shearer.

Joan Crawford later starred as a facially disfigured blackmailer in A Woman's Face, a remake of the Swedish film En kvinnas ansikte which had starred Ingrid Bergman in the lead role three years earlier.

Joan Crawford wanted to play the title role in Mildred Pierce, but director Michael Curtiz instead lobbied for the casting of Barbara Stanwyck.

Curtiz demanded Joan Crawford prove her suitability by taking a screen test; she agreed and ultimately received the role.

Joan Crawford earned the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Joan Crawford starred alongside Van Heflin in Possessed, for which she received a second Academy Award nomination for "Best Actress".

Joan Crawford made a cameo in It's a Great Feeling, poking fun at her own screen image.

Joan Crawford appeared in episodes of anthology television series in the 1950s, and, in 1959, made a pilot for The Joan Crawford Show.

Joan Crawford starred in Female on the Beach with Jeff Chandler, and in Queen Bee, alongside John Ireland.

Joan Crawford, who had been left near-penniless following Alfred Steele's death, accepted a small role in The Best of Everything.

In 1964, Joan Crawford starred as Lucy Harbin in William Castle's horror mystery Strait-Jacket.

Joan Crawford allegedly struggled during rehearsals she was letter-perfect on the day of the show, which included dancing the Charleston, and received two standing ovations from the studio audience.

Joan Crawford made a cameo appearance as herself in the first episode of The Tim Conway Show, which aired on January 30,1970.

Joan Crawford starred on the big screen one final time, playing Dr Brockton in Herman Cohen's science fiction horror film Trog, rounding out a career spanning 45 years and more than 80 motion pictures.

On June 3,1929, Joan Crawford eloped with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

In May 1933, Joan Crawford divorced Fairbanks, citing "grievous mental cruelty".

In 1935, Joan Crawford married Franchot Tone, a stage actor from New York who planned to use his film earnings to finance his theatre group.

Tone and Joan Crawford had first appeared together in Today We Live, but Joan Crawford was hesitant about entering into another romance so soon after her split from Fairbanks.

Joan Crawford filed for divorce, which was granted in 1939.

When he died in 1968, Joan Crawford arranged for him to be cremated and his ashes scattered at Muskoka Lakes, Canada.

Joan Crawford met actor Phillip Terry in June 1942 after press agent Harry Mines asked if he could bring Terry along for dinner at Joan Crawford's home.

Later, on March 12,1946, Joan Crawford filed for divorce on "grounds of cruelty".

Joan Crawford later was named chairman of the board of Pepsi-Cola.

Joan Crawford adopted her first child, a daughter, in June 1940.

The child was temporarily called Joan, until Crawford changed her name to Christina.

Christina's birth mother contracted with a baby broker for Joan Crawford to adopt her baby after its birth.

However, losing him devastated Joan Crawford, and none of her other children dared mention him, as it was a tended subject for her.

Joan Crawford lamented not being able to meet her personally, and Crawford's twin daughters told him about how Crawford felt about losing him.

Christopher Joan Crawford often ran away from home.

Joan Crawford was expelled from several schools and went to a military academy for his high school days.

Joan Crawford held Janet for about 10 seconds, I think.

Joan Crawford was just a tiny little mass of bones with some skin stretched over them.

In 1947, Joan Crawford adopted two fraternal twin daughters and named them Catherine "Cathy" and Cynthia "Cindy".

Joan Crawford attended Vernon Court Junior College, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and the International Fine Arts College.

In November 1967, Joan Crawford announced that Cathy, was engaged to Navy petty officer, Jerome Jon Lalonde.

In 1966, Joan Crawford estimated that she traveled over 100,000 miles a year for the company.

In 1963, Joan Crawford received the Pepsi's sixth annual "Pally Award", which was in the shape of a bronze Pepsi bottle.

In 1973, Joan Crawford retired from Pepsi's board of directors upon her official age of 65.

On February 2,1970, Crawford was presented with the Cecil B DeMille Award by John Wayne at the Golden Globes, held at the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Joan Crawford appeared as the fourth legend in John Springer's "Legendary Ladies" series.

In September 1973, Joan Crawford moved from apartment 22-G to a smaller apartment next door, 22-H, at the Imperial House, 150 East 69th Street, New York City.

Joan Crawford had a heart attack on May 10,1977, and died in her apartment in Lenox Hill, New York City.

Four days earlier on May 6,1977, Joan Crawford had given away her Shih Tzu, Princess Lotus Blossom, because she was too weak to continue to care for her.

Joan Crawford bequeathed nothing to her niece, Joan Lowe.

Joan Crawford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1752 Vine Street, for her contributions to the motion picture industry.

In 1999, Joan Crawford was voted the tenth-greatest female star of the classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.

Joan Crawford donated all her stamped envelopes from fan letters to the cause that year.

In 1933, Joan Crawford donated her large doll collection she had been collecting since the 1920s to a children's hospital.

In 1942, Joan Crawford donated her entire $112,500 salary from They All Kissed the Bride to charities in memory of Carole Lombard.

In June 1952, Joan Crawford travelled to Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas for charity and helped raise thousands of dollars, shook hands, and met with 575 people in one night.

Joan Crawford continued her commitment to service members into the 1960s, by visiting army hospitals to cheer up soldiers who were injured in the Vietnam War.

From 1966 until 1973, Joan Crawford appeared on the annual muscular dystrophy telethon to encourage the public to pledge funds to help those affected by the illness.

Joan Crawford was elected as ball chairman of the 16th annual Animal Kingdom Ball on January 20,1965, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

On March 25,1971, Joan Crawford accepted a position as honorary chairmanship of the board of advisers to help raise funds for the Negro Ensemble Company.

Joan Crawford sent out the invitations for Alan King's first charity benefit in support of children with mental disabilities.

Joan Crawford never publicized these contributions, and did not want the public to know she was paying their medical bills.

On October 2,1978, Christina Joan Crawford published a memoir titled Mommie Dearest, alleging her late adoptive mother was emotionally and physically abusive.

For example, Hayes and Sherman both stated in their autobiographies that they felt Joan Crawford was too strict a parent.

Allyson stated in her autobiography that she witnessed Joan Crawford put Christina in "time-out", and did not let her go to a friend's birthday party as a punishment.

James MacArthur stated he spent a weekend with the Joan Crawford family when he was a child and never saw any abuse, but did observe that Christopher was harnessed in his bed at night.

Joan Crawford said she didn't believe in heredity, but my dad proves her wrong.

Joan Crawford was the initial inspiration for the Dragon Lady in comic strip Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff, debuting in 1934.

Pictures of Joan Crawford were used in the album artwork of The Rolling Stones' album Exile on Main St.

Joan Crawford was portrayed by actress Barrie Youngfellow in the 1980 film The Scarlett O'Hara War.