Joan Blondell
Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOA : Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell, known as Joan Blondell, (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an Oscar-nominated American actress. Considered a sexy, wisecracking, blonde she was a pre–Hays Code staple of Warner Brothers and appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions.
Early life
Born to a vaudeville family in New York City, her father, known as Eddie Joan Blondell, Jr. (né Blustein), was a vaudeville comedian and one of the original Katzenjammer Kids. Her younger sister, Gloria, also an actress, was married to film producer Albert R. Broccoli and bears a strong resemblance to her older sister Joan.Joan had seen much of the world by the time the family settled in Dallas, Texas when she was a teenager. (She also had a brother, the namesake of her father and grandfather.) Under the name Rosebud Blondell she won the 1926 Miss Dallas pageant and came in 4th for the Miss America pageant in September of that year in Atlantic City, N.J. She did some work as a fashion model and was noticed by a Hollywood agent in 1930 while performing on Broadway after returning to New York City to become an actress.
She was asked to change her name to Inez "Something", but later dropped the "Rosebud", by which she went during her childhood and into her college days at North Texas Normal Teacher's School in 1926–27, and cemented "Joan Blondell" for a 49-year professional career. She appeared with Jimmy Cagney on Broadway and was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931.
Career
Blondell was paired with James Cagney in such films as The Public Enemy (1931), and was one half of the gold-digging duo (with Glenda Farrell) in nine films. During the Great Depression, Blondell was one of the highest paid individuals in the United States. Her stirring rendition of "Remember My Forgotten Man" in the Busby Berkeley production of Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), in which she co-starred with Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers, became an anthem for the frustrations of the unemployed and President Herbert Hoover's failed economic policies.
By the end of the decade she had made nearly 50 films, despite having left Warners in 1939. Continuing to work regularly for the rest of her life, Blondell was well received in her later films, and received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in The Blue Veil (1951). She also appeared in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Desk Set (1957) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (motion picture) (1957). She was widely seen in two films released not long before her death, Grease (1978) and the remake of The Champ (1979) with Jon Voight and Rick Schroder. In addition, John Cassavetes cast her as a cynical, aging playwright in his 1978 film Opening Night. She also starred in ABC-TV's Here Come the Brides, about life in the 19th century Pacific Northwest.
Blondell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6309 Hollywood Boulevard.
Private life
Blondell was married first in 1932 to cinematographer George Barnes (1892 – 1953); they divorced in 1936. Her second husband, whom she married on September 19, 1936, was the actor, director, and singer Dick Powell; they had two children, Ellen Powell and Norman S. Powell (who became an actor, producer, and director). Blondell and Powell were divorced on July 14, 1944. She married her third husband in 1947, the producer Michael Todd, who divorced her in 1950. Her marriage to Todd was an emotional and financial disaster. She once accused him of holding her outside a hotel window by her ankles. He was also a heavy spender who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling (high-stakes bridge was one of his weaknesses). He went through a controversial bankruptcy during their marriage. While continuing to live the high-life on a huge estate in New York's Westchester County, the irresponsible Todd ran through Blondell's savings and eventually dumped her for the much younger Elizabeth Taylor.She died of leukemia in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73 with her children and her sister at her bedside. She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.