Joan Crawford

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Actress Joan Crawford was one of Hollywood’s most brilliant, unforgettable, and notoriously fickle actresses. She was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1905 (some sources have the year as 1908) in San Antonio, Texas. Her parents divorced when she was very young. She and her mother then lived a transient lifestyle moving from city to city in the Midwest. Crawford did attend private school but unfortunately did not progress pass a sixth grade education. She was a talented dancer and always dreamed of becoming an entertainer. As a teenager she was able to land employment as a chorus girl in Kansas City, Chicago, and Detroit. In 1924 during one of these shows Crawford was discovered by stage producer J.J. Shubert; he offered her a part in the chorus line of his Broadway play, Innocent Eyes. After several months of success in this play, Crawford was spotted by an MGM talent scout, she was offered a screen test and then was offered a bit part in the film, Pretty Ladies (1925). After several other small film roles, MGM suggested that she change her name, a public contest was held and Joan Crawford was selected. Initially, she hated the name wanting Joan to be pronounced, Jo-Anne, and thinking that Crawford sounded like crawfish but she had no choice in the matter, eventually she grew to embraced the new name and the opportunities she had been given.
In a legendary film career that would span forty-seven years (1925-1972), she would star in over eighty motion pictures. Her most famous film credits include: The Taxi Dancer (1927), Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Grand Hotel (1932), The Bride Wore Red (1937), The Shining Hour (1938), The Women (1939), Humoresque (1946), Queen Bee (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956) and The Best of Everything (1959). She won the Oscar for best actress in 1946, for her portrayal of the ambitious mother in Mildred Pierce (1945). She was not present at the ceremony because of illness and in a much staged and somewhat comical scene; she accepted the award from her bed, saying in the most theatrical way possible, “This is the greatest moment of my life.” It turned out that she had faked being sick because she was afraid of losing. Crawford was nominated for two further best actress Academy Awards, Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952). Her film roles were quite diverse ranging from chorus girls and flappers (1920’s), strong minded career woman (1930’s and 1940’s), and subdued older women (1950’s). But by the 1960’s, she was relegated to bit parts in B-movies and television appearances. She made a dramatic comeback in the thriller, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) but this revival was short lived, subsequent film roles were unsatisfactory, and she soon retired from film.

She had a very tough persona, notoriously difficult to work with and was always at odds with studio heads. In 1938, she was labeled “box-office poison” by industry insiders. By 1943, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer had enough, and fired the actress for refusal to accept roles and abide by her contract. Crawford then signed with Warner Bros. and other studios, where she got roles that were much more to her liking.
Crawford had an infamous ongoing feud with Bette Davis. The two actresses detested one another. Davis was once quoted as saying (about Crawford), “She’s slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie,” and in return, Crawford replied, “I don’t hate Bette Davis even though the press wants me to. I resent her. I don’t see how she (Davis) built a career out of a set of mannerisms, instead of real acting ability. Take away the pop eyes, the cigarette, and those funny clipped words and what have you got? She’s phony, but I guess the public really likes that.” Ironically, the two archrivals would appear together to revive their careers in 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Crawford would say that working with Davis in this motion picture was the greatest challenge of her career.
Her personal life was filled with heart ache and turmoil. She married five times, divorced four husbands, and adopted four children, one of which, Christina, wrote a tell all biography, “Mommie Dearest,” in which Crawford was portrayed as being neurotic, obsessive and abusive. Because she saw this book as the ultimate betrayal, Crawford left her daughter completely out of her will and in the last paragraph of this infamous will, Crawford wrote, "It is my intention to make no provision herein for my son Christopher or my daughter Christina for reasons which are well known to them.” In 1955, Crawford married Pepsi Cola Company Chief Executive, Alfred Steele; she became a goodwill ambassador for the company and traveled around the globe promoting Pepsi. When Steele died in 1959, she was elected to fill his spot on the board of directors and held this position until 1973, when she was forced out.
Due to her advancing age and ill health, the last years of her life were spent secluded in her upper Eastside Manhattan, New York apartment. On May 10, 1977, Crawford died from a heart attack. She had been suffering from pancreatic cancer and was in a weakened state at the time of her death. Crawford’s alleged last words, spoken to her housekeeper (who had begun to pray out loud) were “Damin it! Don’t you dare ask God to help me.” Upon hearing of the death of her long time rival, Bette Davis said, “You should never say bad things about the dead; you should only say good things…Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
Crawford was a devote Christian Scientist and her remains were cremated, a brief service was held on May 13, 1977 in which one hundred and fifty friends and family attended. A memorial service was held at the All Souls Unitarian Church in New York on May 16th in attendance were many Hollywood dignitaries that included good friend actress, Myrna Loy. Crawford’s ashes are interred with that of her late husband, Albert Steele, in the family crypt at the Ferncliff Cemetery mausoleum, Westchester County, Hartsdale, New York.

Shemp Howard & Helen Hayes

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Comedic actor Shemp Howard was born Samuel Horwitz on March 17, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as a part of the Three Stooges comedy team. He was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Litvak accent. He was an older brother of Moe Howard and Curly Howard as well as the "third stooge" in the early years of the act. He would rejoin the trio in May 1946 after Curly suffered a stroke. Shemp died on November 23, 1955 from a heart attack and is buried at Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

Who died on this date:

On March 17, 1993, Helen Hayes known as “the First Lady of the American theater” died. She was born Helen Hayes Brown on October 10, 1900 in Washington, District of Columbia. The diminutive star was an award winning actress of stage, film and television. Her show business career spanned seven decades from 1931 to 1985. Hayes had a much disciplined stage technique but was never totally at ease in Hollywood or with the star system. As a result she never fully embraced the screen but she adored the theater. Although her film appearances were few in quantity they were almost always high in quality. Her major film credits include; Arrowsmith (1931), A Farewell to Arms (1932), Another Language (1933), Night Flight (1933), Crime Without Passion (1934), Vanessa: Her Love Story (1935), and Airport (1970). She won two Academy Awards, first in 1932 for best actress, playing the role of a prostitute in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931), which was her debut on the big screen. A second Oscar win was for best supporting actress and it came forty years later, in 1970’s Airport. She was nominated for numerous other awards including nine Emmy awards (winning one), two Golden Globes, and three Tony Award wins. Helen Hayes died on March 17, 1993 at the Nyack Hospital in Nyack, New York from heart failure at age ninety-two. Her funeral was held at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Nyack. The funeral mass was attended by nearly five hundred mourners and was officiated by Cardinal John J. O’Connor. She is buried in a simple grave at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York.

Cyd Charisse

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Actress Cyd Charisse was born on March 8, 1922 in Amarillo, Texas. Her Hollywood film career began in the 1940s. Her roles usually focused on her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include Singin’ in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) and Silk Stockings (1957). She stopped dancing in films in the late 1950s, but continued acting in film and television, and in 1992 made her Broadway debut. Charisse died on June 17, 2008from a heart attack and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Van Johnson & Anne Baxter

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Singer/ actor Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was born on Hoboken, New Jersey. He began his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity. He followed that with a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. He was married four times, most notably to actresses Ava Gardner (1951–1957) and Mia Farrow (1966–1968). Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime. Sinatra began to show signs of dementia in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering another heart attack, he died on May 14, 1998 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

Actor Edward G. Robinson was born on December 12, 1893 in Bucharest. He began his acting career in 1913 and made his Broadway debut in 1915. He made his film debut in a minor and uncredited role in 1916. Robinson was popular in the 1930s and 1940s and was able to avoid many flops during a 50-year career that included 101 films. An acclaimed performance as the gangster Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello in Little (1931) led to him being typecast as a "tough guy" for much of his early career in works such as Five Star Final (1931), Smart Money (1931), Tiger Shark (1932), Kid Galahad (1937),  Larceny Inc. (1942), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1945), Scarlet Street (1945) and The Stranger (1946). As a memorable tribute to his past gangster roles, he appeared as 'Johnny Rocco' in Key Largo (1948). He also appeared in numerous 'B' movies such as Vice Squad (1953), Tank Battalion (1958).Director Cecil B. DeMille cast him as Dathan in The Ten Commandments in 1956. Robinson's acting career was later bolstered by notable roles in 1959's A Hole in the Head and the Cincinnati Kid (1965). Robinson's last film was Soylent Green (1973). Edward G. Robinson died from cancer on January 26, 1973 and was buried at Beth-El Cemetery in Queens, New York.

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On December 12, 2008, actor Van Johnson died. He was born on August 25, 1916 in Newport, Rhode Island. Johnson was the embodiment of the "boy next door," playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in MGM movies during the war years. At the time of his death on December 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of Hollywood's "golden age." Johnson performed at social clubs in Newport while in high school and moved to New York City after graduating from high school in 1935 to join an off-Broadway revue. He was an understudy to Gene Kelly in the Broadway musical Pal Joey. He was introduced to an MGM casting director by Lucille Ball. This led to a screen test at Columbia Pictures and then Warner Bros. Studios. His all-American good looks and easy demeanor were ill-suited to the gritty movies Warner made at the time, and the studio dropped him at the expiration of his six-month contract. Shortly before leaving Warner, he was cast as a cub reporter opposite Faye Emerson in the 1942 film Murder in the Big House.  

His big break was in A Guy Named Joe (1943) with Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne. Midway through the movie's production, he was involved in a car crash that left him with a metal plate in his forehead and a number of scars on his face that the plastic surgery of the time could not completely correct or conceal; he used heavy makeup to hide them for years. Dunne and Tracy insisted that Johnson not be removed from the cast despite his long absence. With many actors now serving in the armed forces, the accident proved to be a major career break for Johnson. MGM built up his image as the all-American boy in war dramas and musicals, with his most notable starring roles including Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Easy to Wed (1946), In the Good Old Summertime (1949), Battleground (1949), Go For Broke (1951), Remains to Be Seen (1953), and Brigadoon (1954). Johnson was dropped by MGM in 1954, after appearing in The Last Time I Saw Paris with Elizabeth Taylor. He enjoyed critical acclaim for his performance in The Caine Mutiny (1954).  

During the 1950s, Johnson continued to appear in films and also appeared frequently in television guest appearances. In the 1970s, after twice fighting bouts of cancer, Johnson began a second career in summer stock and dinner theater. In 1985, returning to Broadway for the first time since Pal Joey, he was cast in the starring role of the musical La cage aux Folles. Van Johnson lived in a penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper Eastside until 2002, when he moved to an assisted living facility in Nyack, New York. He died there of natural causes on December 12, 2008. He had been ill for the previous year and receiving hospice care. His body was cremated and final disposition is unknown.

On December 12, 1985, actress Anne Baxter died. The multi-talented Academy Award winning actress was born on May 7, 1923 in Michigan City, Indiana but grew up in Bronxville, New York. In 1936, at the age of thirteen, Baxter made her Broadway theater debut in Seen but not Heard, garnering rave reviews but she yearned for Hollywood’s bright lights. An initial foray into film in 1937 was unsuccessful and Baxter returned to Broadway. Then in 1940, at age seventeen, she was given another chance and was given a screen test at 20th Century Fox Studios, and was offered a seven year movie contract. Before she could make a movie for Fox, she was loaned out to MGM where she appeared in 20 Mule Team (1940). Her early film career was filled great success and roles that other actresses would have had to work for years to attain. She was an actress who relied on her charm rather than great beauty and would star in over fifty motion pictures and numerous television series from 1940 to 1985, her film credits include: The Pied Piper (1942), The North Star (1943), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), The Walls of Jericho (1948), Follow the Sun (1951), and Cimarron (1960). She won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1947 for The Razor’s Edge (1946) and was nominated in 1951 for All About Eve (1950). Perhaps her most famous role is that of the beautiful and conniving Queen Nefretiri in Cecile B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956).

In 1960, tiring of the bright lights and glamour of Hollywood, she retired from film and settled with her second husband Randolph Galt on a cattle ranch in Australia. In 1970, after a decade away from show business, she yearned to return to the screen saying, “Acting is not what I do. It’s what I am. It is my permanent, built in cathedral.” She then became a staple of television appearing in numerous programs such as East of Eden (1981) and Hotel (1983). Her last appearance was in the made for television movie, The Masks of Death (1984). On December 8, 1985, while walking along Madison Avenue in Manhattan, she collapsed from a stroke. Baxter was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she lay in a coma for eight days. She died on December 12, 1985, never regaining consciousness. Anne Baxter’s cremated remains are interred at the Lloyd-Jones Cemetery next to the historic Unity Chapel in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Her ashes rest under a small tree memorial which is marked by a non-descript marker. It is near the now empty gravesite of her famous grandfather (Frank Lloyd Wright’s remains were disinterred and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in the mid-1980’s). The cemetery is situated in the valley not far from Wright’s historic Taliesin estate.