Joan Crawford: A life in pictures
Stylist looks back at the Hollywood legend
Joan Crawford was one of the grand dames of the silver screen during the golden age of Hollywood. Making her name as one of MGM's most popular and highest paid actresses in the 1930s, her film career spanned an astonishing 45 years and 80 motion pictures, whilst her personal life - four marriages, an affair with Cary Grant and a rocky relationship with her children, always hit headlines.
As Kate Winslet prepares to take on one of her most well-know roles, Mildred Pierce, Stylist looks back at the life of the Oscar-winning actress, from Broadway backing dancer and famed flapper girl to feted film star, box office poison and on-set spats with Bette Davis.
Picture credits: Rex Features and Getty images
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Joan Crawford, 1910
Joan Crawford was actually born Lucille Fay… More details
Joan Crawford, 1910
Joan Crawford was actually born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23 1905 in San Antonio, Texas. Joan loved watching vaudeville acts from a young age, and her ambition was to be a dancer.
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Joan Crawford, 1920s
Under her original name, Joan started dancing in… More details
Joan Crawford, 1920s
Under her original name, Joan started dancing in the choruses of travelling revues, and was spotted by a producer in Detroit. He put her in the chorus line for Innocent Eyes, where she met and supposedly married saxophone player James Welton (a marriage she later denied).
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Joan Crawford, 1925
Joan was spotted and offered a contract by MGM in… More details
Joan Crawford, 1925
Joan was spotted and offered a contract by MGM in 1924 - and a year later the studio's head of publicity decided she needed a name change. A competition with the magazine Movie Weekly allowed readers to select her name - and Joan Crawford was born.
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Joan Crawford, 1925
Joan's first roles were in silent films. Here she… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1925
Frustrated at the size and quality of her parts,… More details
Joan Crawford, 1925
Frustrated at the size and quality of her parts, Joan embarked on a campaign of self-promotion in Hollywood that landed her her first major role in Sally, Irene and Mary. She played Irene. a struggling chorus girl.
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Joan Crawford, 1926
Crawford is pictured in a film still from Tramp,… More details
Joan Crawford, 1926
Crawford is pictured in a film still from Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, one of her earlier film roles. Around this time she started to be used as the romantic interest for many of MGM's male stars.
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Joan Crawford, 1928
Joan's role in Our Dancing Daughter's catapulted… More details
Joan Crawford, 1928
Joan's role in Our Dancing Daughter's catapulted her to stardom, and established her as a symbol of 1920s femininity - the flapper.
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Joan Crawford, 1927
Here, Joan embodies the 1920s flapper - a symbol… More details
Joan Crawford, 1927
Here, Joan embodies the 1920s flapper - a symbol of free-spirited feminity. After starring in a few more flapper-themed movies, American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald said that Joan was "doubtless the best example of a flapper, the girl you see in smart night clubs...young things with a talent for living".
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Joan Crawford, 1928
In Across to Singapore, Joan starred opposite… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1929
On 3 June, 1929, Joan married Douglas Fairbank's… More details
Joan Crawford, 1929
On 3 June, 1929, Joan married Douglas Fairbank's Jr in New York city. The son of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford (both actors who founded the United Artists studio), his marriage to Joan meant the pair were considered Hollywood royalty. They divorced in 1933.
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Joan Crawford, 1929
Untamed was Joan Crawford's first talkie film - a… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1930
After the success of Our Blushing Brides, MGM… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1931
In 1931, Joan starred alongside Clark Gable in… More details
Joan Crawford, 1931
In 1931, Joan starred alongside Clark Gable in Possessed. They began an affair during the production - and despite demands from the studio head that the affair end, it continued secretly for several years. The film was a huge hit.
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Joan Crawford, 1932
After the film Letty Lynton was removed due to a… More details
Joan Crawford, 1932
After the film Letty Lynton was removed due to a plagiarism suit, it became the "lost" Crawford film - but remained famous due to the "Letty Lynton dress" designed by Adrian. The white gown became iconic as the first dress to accentuate Joan's broad shoulders. US store Macy's copied the dress and it reportedly sold over 500,000 replicas.
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Joan Crawford, 1932
One of MGM's most prestigious movies of 1932,… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1932
In 1932, the Motion Picture Herald named Crawford… More details
Joan Crawford, 1932
In 1932, the Motion Picture Herald named Crawford as one of the top moneymaking stars of the year, and Life magazine called her the "First Queen of the movies". Her relationship with the press soured however, when she was named "box office poison", along with several other Hollywood stars in 1938.
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Joan Crawford, 1933
The film Dancing Lady was another hit for Joan… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1934
The film Chained, with Joan and Cary Grant in the… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1934
Sadie McKee is a classic example of the… More details
Joan Crawford, 1934
Sadie McKee is a classic example of the Depression-era films Crawford became famous for. The films usually told the rags-to-riches tale of a young girl working through troubled relationships on the path to financial and romantic success.
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Joan Crawford, 1935
Joan married her second husband, stage actor… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1935
Here Joan Crawford celebrates her birthdya… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1937
In The Bride Wore Red, Crawford plays a cabaret… More details
Joan Crawford, 1937
In The Bride Wore Red, Crawford plays a cabaret singer who poses as an aristocrat. This film was the last of seven Crawford and husband Franchot Tone would make together.
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Joan Crawford, 1939
The Women was Joan Crawford's big comeback movie.… More details
Joan Crawford, 1939
The Women was Joan Crawford's big comeback movie. She starred as home-wrecker Crystal Allen in the movie, alongside a stellar cast that included Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine. Following the lives of Manhattan women, not a single man is seen throughout the film.
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Joan Crawford, 1940
Joan was a dog lover her whole life, and often… More details
Joan Crawford, 1940
Joan was a dog lover her whole life, and often pictured with pooches. In 1930, she was sent a puppy in a jewellery case as a present, and was devastated when she had to give away her beloved Shih Tzu, Princess Lotus Blossom due to ill health in 1977.
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Joan Crawford, 1943
Joan married third husband, actor Phillip Terry… More details
Joan Crawford, 1943
Joan married third husband, actor Phillip Terry in 1942 after courting for six months. They adopted two children together, but the marriage ended in 1946.
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Joan Crawford, 1945
After a two-year hiatus from the silver screen,… More details
Joan Crawford, 1945
After a two-year hiatus from the silver screen, Crawford returned to form in the Warner Brother's picture Mildred Pierce. Bette Davis was the studio's first choice, but she turned the role down - which was snapped up by an eager Joan. The drama about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter was a huge success.
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Joan Crawford, 1947
Joan Crawford adopted her first child in 1940,… More details
Joan Crawford, 1947
Joan Crawford adopted her first child in 1940, changing her name to Christina. The pair had a rocky relationship - in 1978, a year after Joan's death, Christina published Mommie Dearest, a book claiming that Joan has been emotionally and physically abusive. The book became a bestseller.
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Joan Crawford, 1946
Here Joan accepts the Academy Award for Best… More details
Joan Crawford, 1946
Here Joan accepts the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Mildred Pierce. She went on to gain a second nomination in 1947 for her role in Possessed.
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Joan Crawford, 1952
Crawford asked to leave Warner Brothers and went… More details
Joan Crawford, 1952
Crawford asked to leave Warner Brothers and went to rival studio RKO. She enjoyed further success with Sudden Fear -a film noir about a woman who marries a murderer. She earned her third (and final) Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role.
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Joan Crawford, 1955
Joan married her final husband, Alfred Steele in… More details
Joan Crawford, 1955
Joan married her final husband, Alfred Steele in Las Vegas in 1955. The President of Pepsi Cola, Steele travelled extensively, and Crawford followed suit. After Steele's death in 1959, Crawford sat on the board of directors for Pepsi Cola until 1973.
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Joan Crawford, 1959
Left penniless after her husband Alfred Steele's… More details
Joan Crawford, 1959
Left penniless after her husband Alfred Steele's death, Crawford accepted her first non-starring role for some years, in the film The Best of Everything.
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Joan Crawford, 1962
In 1962, Joan published her autobiography A… More details
Joan Crawford, 1962
In 1962, Joan published her autobiography A Portrait of Joan, and a second book My Way of Life in 1971. The books were a guide to Joan's way of life, from grooming and exercise to her wardrobe, rather than a racy tell-all.
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Joan Crawford, 1962
By the early 1960s, Crawford's star status had… More details
Joan Crawford, 1962
By the early 1960s, Crawford's star status had diminuished. Then she starred as a wheelchair-bound former A-lister in the huge hit What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. Bette Davis played her psychotic sister - and the stories of on-set squabbles between the pair became legendary - and developed into a lifelong feud.
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Joan Crawford, 1970
The sci-fi horror picture Trog was Crawford's… More details
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Joan Crawford, 1974
Joan's final public appearance was at a party for… More details
Joan Crawford, 1974
Joan's final public appearance was at a party for actress Rosalind Russell. Russell was greviously ill at the time, and when the unflattering photos of both stars appeared in the press, Crawford retired from all public life. Plagued with dental and health problems in her later life, she eventually died in 1977 from a heart attack.
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Tags: film, actresses, hollywood icons
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