Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford Dies at Home By PETER B. FLINT Joan Crawford, who rose from waitress and chorus girl to become one of the great movie stars, died yesterday of a heart attack in her apartment at 158 East 68th Street. She gave her age as 69, but some reference works list her as two to four years older. Miss Crawford had been a director of the Pepsi-Cola Company since the death of her fourth husband, Alfred N. Steele, the board chairman of the company, in 1959, but she had not been actively involved in the business in recent months. A spokesman for Pepsi-Cola said Miss Crawford had no history of cardiac trouble and had appeared to be in good health except for recent complaints of back pains. Miss Crawford was a quintessential superstar--an epitome of timeless glamour who personified for decades the dreams and disappointments of millions of American women. With a wind-blown bob, mocking eyes and swirling short skirt, she spun to stardom in 1928, frenziedly dancing the Charleston stop a table in the silent melodrama "Our Dancing Daughters." As a frivolous flapper she quickly made a series of spin-offs, including "Our Modern Maidens," "Laughing Sinners" and "This Modern Age." Endowed with a low voice, she easily made the transition to sound pictures and went on to become one of the more endurable movie queens. Her career, a chorine-to-grande dame rise, with some setbacks, was due largely to determination, shrewd timing, flexibility, hard work and discipline. Self-educated and intensely professional, Miss Crawford studied and trained assiduously to learn her art. She made the most of her large blue eyes, wide mouth, broad shoulders and slim figured and eventually became an Oscar-winning dramatic actress. In more than 80 movies, she adapted easily to changing times and tastes. When audiences began to tire of one image, she toiled to produce a new one. She made the changes with pace-setting makeup, coiffures, costumes--and craftsmanship. From a symbol of flaming youth in the Jazz Age, she successively portrayed a shopgirl, a sophisticate, a tenacious woman fighting for success in love and/or a career in a male-dominated milieu, and later a repressed and anguished older woman. Exhibitors voted her one of the 10 top money-making stars from 1932 through 1936, and in the late 1930's she was one of the highest-paid actresses. With a finely structured, photogenic face and high style gowns usually designed by Adrian, she idealized what many woman wished to be. In 1945, when her career seemed to be foundering, she rebounded as a doting mother and ambitious waitress who rises to wealthy restauranteur in "Mildred Pierce," a role that won her an Academy Award as best actress. Despite the Cinderella-type roles in many of her early movies, which many reviewers came to term "the Crawford formula," she fought tenaciously for varied and challenging parts, just as she later fought to remain a great star, with what one writer called "the diligence of a ditch digger." In her autobiography, "A Portrait of Joan," written with Jane Kesner Ardmore and published in 1962 by Doubleday & Company Inc., she acknowledged that "I was always a script stealer," which got her into "Our Dancing Daughters." She boldly cajoled producers, directors and writers to gain good roles. When Norma Shearer refused to play a mother in the 1940 drama "Susan and God," Miss Crawford was offered the role. She responded, "I'd play Wally Beery's grandmother if it's a good part!"

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSuer on March 23, 1905, in San Antonio, Texas. Much of Crawford's youth was spent moving from place to place, but she always found a connection with theater. Abused at home and at school, Crawford saw theater as a way to better her life. In 1924 she left Detroit for New York City to star in the musical Innocent Eyes. In 1925 she signed a movie contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and through a magazine contest sponsored by MGM acquired the name Joan Crawford, a moniker that quickly became known in households across America. Throughout her film career, Crawford starred in a total of 81 films and was nominated for two Academy Awards. In 1945, Crawford won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Mildred Pierce. Crawford donated much of her time and money to help needy organizations and received a number of awards and certificates in appreciation for her work. In 1955, Crawford married Alfred Steele, chairman and CEO of Pepsi-Cola Corporation, and took on the roles of board member and publicity executive. In the early 1960s, Crawford arrived at Brandeis University to support the arts program. In 1965, the Joan Crawford Dance Studio was dedicated within the Spingold Theater Arts Center to promote dance education. The awards in this online exhibit were previously on display at the Joan Crawford Dance Studio. In 1967, Crawford became a Brandeis University Fellow. A letter of invitation to her induction dinner states that Crawford was elected as a Brandeis Fellow "given her interest, time and service to a host of civic and philanthropic causes which has endeared her to a large public that goes well beyond the pale of the entertainment industry." When Crawford became a Brandeis Fellow, she joined a group of men and women who were recognized as successful and creative individuals in their fields or communities.