Joan Crawford Biography

Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur, into a poor family and her parents separated before she was born. Lucille’s mother was a cleaner.

Lucille loved dancing, and as a teenager danced in competitions and nightclubs. She moved to Los Angeles in 1925, and was soon cast in her first small role, in 'Pretty Ladies'.

Her new name, Joan Crawford, was given to her when a magazine asked its readers to name the starlet. Her big break came in 1928, in 'Our Dancing Daughters'. She became an overnight sensation, and a symbol of the "flapper" movement.

Around this time, Joan met Douglas Fairbanks Jr. They married, but weren’t compatible, and divorced after only a few years.

In the 1930's, Joan Crawford became one of the biggest stars at MGM; Depression-era women seemed to relate to Crawford in a personal way.

Her frequent co-star was Clark Gable, whom she was romantically attached to, on and off, for a decade. During this time, she married another of her co-stars, Franchot Tone, but this marriage also failed after a few years.

As the 1940's approached, Joan Crawford's star was fading. She adopted four children, but Christina would later allege that her mother was a child abuser. Joan endured yet another failed marriage, this time to Philip Terry.

Leaving MGM, in 1945, she starred for Warner in 'Mildred Pierce', and won the Best Actress Oscar of that year. In the early 1960’s she starred with Bette Davis, in 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'

Her fourth marriage, to Alfred Steele, was to prove her happiest, but he was to die of a heart attack.

In retirement, Joan became a Christian Scientist, and seemed to grow closer to her children. She died of pancreatic cancer in May 1977, in New York City, and is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York, USA.