Joan Crawford filmography
The Joan Crawford filmography lists the film appearances of American actress Joan Crawford, who starred in numerous feature films throughout a lengthy career that spanned nearly five decades.
She made her film debut in Lady of the Night (1925) as a body double for film star Norma Shearer. She appeared in several other films before she made her major breakthrough playing Lon Chaney's love interest in the 1927 horror film The Unknown. Her major success in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) made her a popular flapper of the late 1920s. Her first sound film Untamed (1929) was a critical and box office success.
Crawford would become a highly popular actress throughout the 1930s, as a leading lady for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She starred in a series of "rags-to-riches" films that were extremely popular during the Depression-era, most especially with women. Her popularity rivaled fellow MGM actresses, including Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer and Jean Harlow. She appeared in eight movies with Clark Gable, including romantic drama Possessed (1931), musical film Dancing Lady (1933), romantic comedy Love on the Run (1936) and romantic drama Strange Cargo (1940) among others. In 1937, she was proclaimed the first "Queen of the Movies" by Life magazine, but her popularity soon waned. After her films The Bride Wore Red (1937) and Mannequin (1938) proved to be expensive failures, in May 1938, Crawford – along with Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Francis and many others – was labeled box office poison; an actor whose "box office draw is nil".
Crawford managed to make a comeback in the comedy The Women (1939) opposite an all-star female only cast. On July 1, 1943, Crawford left MGM and signed an exclusive contract with Warner Brothers, where she became a rival of Bette Davis. After a slow start with the studio, she received critical and commercial acclaim for her performance in drama Mildred Pierce (1945). The film earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. From 1946 to 1952, Crawford appeared in a series of critical and box office successes, including the musical drama Humoresque (1946), film noirs Possessed (1947, for which she received a second Academy Award nomination) and Flamingo Road (1949), drama The Damned Don't Cry (1950) and romantic comedy Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) among others. She received a third – and final – Academy Award nomination for her performance in the thriller Sudden Fear (1952).
In 1953, Crawford starred in the musical Torch Song, her final film role for MGM. Her next film Johnny Guitar (1954) although not a major hit, is one of Crawford's most popular films among her fans. During the latter half of the 1950s, Crawford starred in a series of B-movies, including romantic dramas Female on the Beach (1955) and Autumn Leaves (1956). In 1962, Crawford was teamed with Bette Davis in a film adaptation of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. The thriller film was a box office hit, and briefly revived Crawford's career. Her final film performance was in the British science fiction film, Trog (1970).
Filmography
Feature films
‡ denotes lost film
Short subjects
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | MGM Studio Tour | Herself[2] | – | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1925 | Miss MGM | Miss MGM[1] | – | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1930 | Hollywood Snapshots #11 | Herself | Ralph Staub | Columbia |
| 1931 | The Slippery Pearls | Herself | William C. McGann | Paramount |
| 1932 | Screen Snapshots | Herself | Ralph Staub | Columbia |
| 1947 | The Jimmy Fund | Herself | – | – |
| 1958 | Hollywood Mothers and Fathers | Herself | – | Columbia |
| 1972 | A Very Special Child | Narrator | – | American Cancer Society |
Archival footage
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Four Days in November | Herself | Mel Stuart | United Artists |
| 1964 | MGM's Big Parade of Comedy[5] | Herself[6] | Robert Youngson | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1974 | That's Entertainment! | Janie Barlow (Dancing Lady)[6] | Jack Haley Jr. | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1984 | Terror in the Aisles | Blanche Hudson (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?)[6] | Andrew J. Kuehn | Universal |
| 1985 | That's Dancing! | Herself[6] | Jack Haley Jr. | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1994 | That's Entertainment! III | Jenny Stewart (Torch Song)[6] | Bud Friedgen, Michael J. Sheridan | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Uncompleted films
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | Tide of Empire | Josephita (replaced by Renée Adorée) | Allan Dwan | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1930 | Great Day | Susie Totheridge | Harry Beaumont | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1930 | The March of Time | Herself | Charles Reisner | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| 1964 | Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte | Miriam Deering (replaced by Olivia de Havilland due to illness) | Robert Aldrich | 20th Century Fox |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Episodes and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | The Revlon Mirror Theater | Margaret Hughes | Rod Amateau | "Because I Love Him" |
| 1954 | General Electric Theater | Mary Andrews | Rod Amateau | "The Road to Edinburgh" |
| 1958 | General Electric Theater | Ruth Marshall | Herschel Daugherty | "Strange Witness" |
| 1959 | The Joan Crawford Show[7] | Susan Conrad | Dick Powell | "Woman on the Run" (pilot) |
| 1959 | General Electric Theater | Ann Howard | Herschel Daugherty | "And One Was Loyal" |
| 1959 | Zane Grey Theatre | Stella Faring | Don Medford | "Rebel Range" |
| 1961 | Zane Grey Theatre | Sarah and Melanie Hobbes | Lewis Allen | "One Must Die" |
| 1961 | The DuPont Show of the Week | Hostess | James Elson | "The Ziegfeld Touch" |
| 1963 | Route 66 | Morgan Matheson Harper | Philip Leacock | "Same Picture, Different Frame" |
| 1965 | Della[8] | Della Chappell | Robert Gist | TV movie |
| 1967 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | Amanda True | Barry Shear | "The Five Daughters Affair: Part 1"[9] |
| 1967 | Easter Island | Narrator (voice) | José Gómez-Sicre | TV documentary |
| 1968 | The Lucy Show | Herself (guest star) | Jack Donohue | "Lucy and the Lost Star" |
| 1968 | The Secret Storm | Joan Borman Kane #2[10] | Gloria Monty | Daytime serial (5 episodes) |
| 1969 | Garbo | Hostess / Narrator | Fred Burnley | TV documentary |
| 1969 | Night Gallery[11] | Claudia Menlo | Steven Spielberg | TV movie (segment: "Eyes") |
| 1970 | The Virginian | Stephanie White | Robert Gist | "Nightmare" |
| 1970 | The Tim Conway Show | Herself (cameo) | Alan Rafkin | "To Cuba with Love" |
| 1970 | Journey to the Unknown[12] | Hostess | Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Don Chaffey | TV movie |
| 1970 | The Tim Conway Comedy Hour | Herself (guest star) | Bill Hobin | "Episode #1.3" |
| 1971 | Journey to Murder[12] | Hostess | Gerry O'Hara, John Gibson | TV movie |
| 1972 | The Sixth Sense | Joan Fairchild | John Newland | "Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death" |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Title / Honor | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | National Board of Review Awards | Best Actress | Mildred Pierce | Won |
| 1946 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | Mildred Pierce | Won |
| 1946 | New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actress | Mildred Pierce | Nominated |
| 1948 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | Possessed | Nominated |
| 1953 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | Sudden Fear | Nominated |
| 1953 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress – Drama | Sudden Fear | Nominated |
| 1953 | Laurel Awards | Best Dramatic Performance, Female | Sudden Fear | Won |
| 1954 | Laurel Awards | Top Female Musical Performance | Torch Song | Won |
| 1960 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Star of Motion Picture | Star at 1752 Vine Street | Honored |
| 1963 | BAFTA Film Awards | Best Foreign Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Nominated |
| 1970 | Golden Globe Awards | Cecil B. DeMille Award | Outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment | Honored |
References
- Uncredited
- Credited as Lucille LeSueur
- With sound. In color. Singing, dancing, and part of an all-star cast performing the song "Got a Feeling for You".
- Feature film culled from 2-part episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- a.k.a. The Big Parade of Comedy
- Archival footage
- TV pilot for unsold series
- TV movie pilot for Royal Bay unsold series, released theatrically
- Different scenes were shot and turned into the theatrically released feature film The Karate Killers.
- Temporary replacement for Christina Crawford
- TV movie pilot for Night Gallery series
- TV movie culled from the series Journey to the Unknown
- Vincent Terrace, Experimental Television, Test Films, Pilots and Trial Series, 1925-1995. ISBN 0-7864-0178-8
- Lee Goldberg, Unsold Television Pilots, 1955-1988. ISBN 978-0-89950-373-8
- Joan Crawford Papers, Billy Rose Collection, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. http://www.nypl.org/archives/4282
- Bob Thomas, Joan Crawford. ISBN 0-297-77617-7
- Alexander Walker, Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Star. ISBN 0-06-015123-4
- Lawrence J. Quirk, The Films of Joan Crawford. Citadel Pr; 1st Carol Pub. ISBN 0-8065-0341-6
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joan Crawford. |
- Joan Crawford on IMDb
- Joan Crawford at the TCM Movie Database
- Joan Crawford at AllMovie