Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford Facts
| Sign | Aries |
| Born |
Mar 23, 1905 San Antonio, TX |
| Died |
May 10, 1977 New York City, NY |
| Age | Died at 72 |
| Total Facts | 86 |
"Joan Arden" was chosen as the young star's screen name after a write-in contest was held in the pages of "Movie Weekly" magazine, but a bit player came forward and said she was already using it. Mrs. Marie M. Tisdale, a crippled woman living in Albany, New York, won $500 for submitting the runner-up name "Joan Crawford".
Bette Davis had been nominated for Best Actress in her film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), also starring Joan Crawford. If Bette had won, it would have set a record number of wins for an actress. According to the book "Bette & Joan - The Divine Feud" by Shaun Considine, the two had a life long mutual hatred, and a jealous Joan Crawford actively campaigned against Bette Davis for winning Best Actress, and even told Anne Bancroft that if Anne won and was unable to accept the Award, Joan would be happy to accept it on her behalf. According to the book -- and this may or may not be 100% true, but it makes a good anecdote -- on Oscar night, Bette Davis was standing in the wings of the theatre waiting to hear the name of the winner. When it was announced that Anne Bancroft had won Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (1962), Bette Davis felt an icy hand on her shoulder as Joan Crawford said "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept".
Blue Öyster Cult wrote a song about her, titled "Joan Crawford".
Adopted 4 children. her 2 oldest children, Christina Crawford and Chistopher were completely excluded from her will.
Adopted four children: Christina Crawford, Christopher Crawford, and twins Cindy Crawford and Cathy Crawford.
Adoptive mother of Christina Crawford.
Adoptive mother of twin sisters Cathy Crawford and Cindy Crawford, both of whom she adopted in 1947.
After hearing that a plumber had used a toilet after installing it in her Brentwood home, she immediately had the fixture and pipes ripped out and replaced.
After her friend Steven Spielberg hit it big, Joan sent him periodic notes of congratulations. The last one came two weeks before her death.
After her husband died, she still continued to set a place for him at the dinner table.
After joining Warner Bros., she was looking for her first role at the studio. Jack L. Warner had her in mind for the role of Kathryn Mason in _Conflict (1945)_ and sent the script for the film to her. However, after reading the script, she told her agent to tell Warner that "Joan Crawford never dies in her movies, and she never ever loses her man to anyone".
After she was signed to MGM, someone attempted to extort money from the studio by claiming they had a porn film that featured a young Crawford. The attempt failed when MGM pointed out they could not definitely prove the actress in the film was Crawford. The incident was mentioned in a couple of biographies.
Although Crawford claimed her youngest daughters Cathy and Cindy were twins, most sources, including her two older children, claim they were just two babies born about a month apart. Her two older children claimed they couldn't be twins because they looked nothing alike. In the early 1990s, Cathy found their birth certificate, which proved that they were indeed twins, born on January 13, 1947. The fact that they were fraternal twins, rather than identical, can account for the fact that they did not look alike. The twins eventually met their birth father and other biological relatives. They found out that their birth mother had died of kidney failure soon after birth and that their father, who had not been married to their mother, did not find out about them until after it was too late. They were sold illegally to Joan Crawford by Tennessee Children's Home Society director Georgia Tann.
Always slept in white pyjamas.
As a child, Joan was playing in the front yard of her home in Texas when she got a large piece of glass lodged in her foot. After it was removed, doctors told her she would likely never walk again without a limp. Joan was determined to be a dancer, so she practiced walking and dancing every day for over six months until she was able to walk without pain. Not only did she make a full recovery, she also fulfilled her dream of becoming a chorus dancer.
At the time of her death, the only photographs displayed in her apartment were of Barbara Stanwyck and President John F. Kennedy.
Because Joan was bullied and shunned at Stephens College by the other students due to her poor homelife, she answered every single piece of fanmail she received in her lifetime except those from former classmates at Stephens.
Born at 10:00 PM.
Cartoonist Milton Caniff claimed he created the character of "Dragon Lady" for his popular "Terry and the Pirates" comic strip, based on Joan Crawford.
Comedic actress Betty Hutton, who lived near Crawford for a time, stated that she had seen some of the abuse claimed by Joan's daughter Christina Crawford. Hutton would often encourage her own children to spend some time with "those poor children", as she felt they needed some fun in their lives.
Cousin-in-law of Lucile Fairbanks.
Daughter-in-law of Douglas Fairbanks.
Decided to adopt children after suffering a series of miscarriages with her husbands and being told by doctors that she would never be able to have a baby.
Despite being a big star, Crawford really didn't appear in that many film classics. One she missed out on was From Here to Eternity (1953) in 1953. When the domineering actress insisted that her costumes be designed by Sheila O'Brien, studio head Harry Cohn replaced her with Deborah Kerr.
Drank excessively and smoked until she began practicing Christian Science, at which time she abruptly quit doing both.
During her later years, Crawford was drinking up to a quart of vodka a day.
Each time Crawford married, she changed the name of her Brentwood estate and installed all new toilet seats.
Entered Stephens College, a posh university for women in Columbia, Missouri in 1922, however she left before her first academic year was over as she felt she was not academically prepared for university.
Former mother-in-law of Harvey Medlinsky.
Has once said that Clark Gable was the only man she had ever loved.
Her 1933 contract with MGM was so detailed and binding, it even had a clause in it indicating what time she was expected to be in bed each night.
Her biggest pet peeve was being told by rising starlets that she was their mother's favorite actress.
Her cleanliness obsession lead her to prefer showers to tubs, as she abhorred sitting in her own bathwater.
Her daughter Christina Crawford suffered from an ovarian cyst in 1968 while appearing on the TV soap opera "The Secret Storm" (1954). While Christina was recovering from surgery, Joan Crawford, 63 years old at the time, temporarily took over Christina's role as a 28-year-old on the show. Christina Crawford wrote in her book "Mommie Dearest" that when she watched her mother's scenes on the telecast, it was obvious to her that her mother had been drinking during the taping.
Her little tap dancing in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) was the first audible tap dance on the screen.
Her Oscar statuette for Mildred Pierce (1945) went on auction after her death and sold for $68,000. The auction house had predicted a top bid of $15,000.
Her performance as Mildred Pierce Beragon in Mildred Pierce (1945) is ranked #93 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
Her popularity grew so quickly after her name was changed to Joan Crawford that two films in which she was still billed as Lucille Le Sueur: Old Clothes (1925) and The Only Thing (1925) were recalled, and the billings were altered.
In 1933, she appeared in a Coca-Cola print advertisement. Some years later, in 1955, she married Pepsi-Cola board chairman Alfred N. Steele.
In 1959, upon the death of her husband Alfred Steele, CEO of the Pepsi-Cola Company, Joan remained on the Board of Directors until her forced retirement in 1973, earning $60,000 per year.
In her final years at MGM, Crawford was handed weak scripts in the hopes that she'd break her contract. Two films she hungered to appear in were Random Harvest (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). Both films went to bright new star Greer Garson instead, and Crawford left the studio soon after.
In Italy, almost all of her films were dubbed by Tina Lattanzi and in the fifties mainly by Lidia Simoneschi. She was once dubbed by Gemma Griarotti in the second dubbing of Grand Hotel (1932).
In the early 1930s, tired of playing fun-loving flappers, Joan wanted to change her image. Thin lips would not do for her, she wanted big lips. Ignoring Crawford's natural lip contours, Max Factor ran a smear of color across her upper and lower lips; it was just what she wanted. To Max, the Crawford look, which became her trademark, was always 'the smear'. To the public, it became known as 'Hunter's Bow Lips'. Crawford is often credited as helping to rout America's prejudice against lipstick.
Interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York, USA.
Is portrayed by Barrie Youngfellow in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV) and by Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest (1981)
It was recently learned from an excellent, detailed and objective TV biography of her (including information from Christina Crawford) that Joan Crawford's hatred of wire hangers derived from her poverty as a child and her experiences working with her mother in what must have been a grim job in a laundry. [6 August 2002]
Joan adopted all of her children except Christopher Crawford while she was unmarried. Since the state of California did not allow single men and women to adopt children at that time, Joan had to search for agencies in the eastern United States. The agency in charge of the adoption of Christina Crawford was later uncovered as part of a black market baby ring.
Joan adopted another son in the early 1940s, but during a magazine interview, she disclosed the location of his birth, and his biological mother showed up at her Brentwood home wanting the baby back. Thinking that a fight would hurt the well-being of the child, Joan gave him back to his mother, who then sold him to another family.
Joan always considered The Unknown (1927) a big turning point for her. She said it wasn't until working with Lon Chaney in this film that she learned the difference between standing in front of a camera and acting in front of a camera. She said that was all due to Lon Chaney and his intense concentration, and after that experience she said she worked much harder to become a better actress.
Joan never liked the name "Crawford", saying to friend, actor William Haines that it sounded too much like "Crawfish". He replied that it was much better than "Cranberry," which became the nickname he used for Crawford for over 50 years.