Joan Blondell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Rose Joan Blondell (1906-08-30)August 30, 1906 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 25, 1979(1979-12-25) (aged 73) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1927–1979 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, includingNorman Powell |
| Relatives | Gloria Blondell (sister) |
Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979)[a] was an American actress[3] who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career invaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on a film career, establishing herself as aPre-Code staple ofWarner Bros. Pictures in wisecracking, sexy roles, appearing in more than 100 films and television productions. She was described as a "brassy blonde with a heart of gold."[4] Blondell was most active in film during the 1930s and early 1940s, and during that time co-starred withGlenda Farrell, a colleague and close friend, in nine films. Blondell continued acting on film and television for the rest of her life, often in small, supporting roles. She was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance inThe Blue Veil (1951). In 1958, she was nominated for theTony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Mrs. Farrow inThe Rope Dancers.[5]
Near the end of her life, Blondell was nominated for aGolden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance inOpening Night (1977). She was featured in two more films, theblockbustermusicalGrease (1978) andFranco Zeffirelli'sThe Champ (1979), which was released shortly before her death from leukemia.
Rose Joan Blondell was born in New York City to avaudeville family; her birthdate was August 30, 1906, but was misrepresented as 1909 by Blondell earlier in her career and sometimes later conflated with the true year, including in her obituaries.[6] Her father, Levi Bluestein, a vaudeville comedian known as Ed Blondell,[7][8] was born in Poland to a Jewish family in 1866. He toured for many years starring in Blondell and Fennessy's stage version ofThe Katzenjammer Kids.[9][10][11][12] Blondell's mother was Catherine (known as "Kathryn" or "Katie") Caine, born inBrooklyn, Kings County, New York (later Brooklyn, New York City), on April 13, 1884, to Irish-American parents. Joan's younger sister,Gloria Blondell, also an actress, was married to film producerAlbert R. Broccoli. Joan also had a brother, Ed Blondell, Jr.[13]
Joan's cradle was a property trunk as her parents moved from place to place. She made her first appearance on stage at the age of four months when she was carried on in a cradle as the daughter of Peggy Astaire inThe Greatest Love. Her family comprised a vaudeville troupe, the Bouncing Blondells.[14]
Joan had spent a year in Honolulu (1914–1915), where she attendedPunahou School,[15] and six months in Australia and had seen much of the world by the time her family stopped touring and settled in Dallas, Texas, when she was a teenager. Using the stage name "Rosebud" (acquired several years before, while a student at Chicago's Elmwood School, following her onstage portrayal of a rose during a show entitledIn a Garden of Girls[13]), Blondell won the 1926 Miss Dallas pageant, was a finalist in an early version of theMiss Universe pageant in May 1926, and placed fourth forMiss America 1926 in Atlantic City, New Jersey in September of that year. She attendedSanta Monica High School, where she acted in school plays and edited the school yearbook.[16] While there, she gave her name as Rosebud Blondell,[17] and when she attended North Texas State Teacher's College (now the University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas in 1926–1927, where her mother was a local stage actress.[18]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: more details about her career in the 1930s, which is under represented in this section. You can help byadding missing information.(August 2022) |
Around 1927, she returned to New York, worked as a fashion model, a circus hand, a clerk in a store, joined a stock company to become an actress, and performed on Broadway. In 1930, she starred withJames Cagney inPenny Arcade on Broadway.[19]Penny Arcade lasted only three weeks, butAl Jolson saw it and bought the rights to the play for $20,000. He then sold the rights toWarner Bros., with the proviso that Blondell and Cagney be cast in the film version, namedSinners' Holiday (1930). Placed under contract by Warner Bros., she moved to Hollywood, where studio bossJack L. Warner wanted her to change her name to "Inez Holmes", but Blondell refused.[20][11]: 34 She began to appear in short subjects and was named as one of theWAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931.[21]
Blondell was paired several more times with James Cagney in films, includingThe Public Enemy (1931) andFootlight Parade (1933), and was one-half of agold-digging duo withGlenda Farrell in nine films. During theGreat Depression, Blondell was one of the highest-paid individuals in the United States. Her stirring rendition of "Remember My Forgotten Man" in theBusby Berkeley production ofGold Diggers of 1933, in which she co-starred withDick Powell andRuby Keeler, became an anthem for the frustrations of unemployed people and the government's failed economic policies.[22] In 1937, she starred oppositeErrol Flynn inThe Perfect Specimen. By the end of the decade, she had made nearly 50 films. She left Warner Bros. in 1939.
In 1943, Blondell returned to Broadway as the star of Mike Todd's short-lived production ofThe Naked Genius, a comedy written byGypsy Rose Lee.[6] She was well received in her later films, despite being relegated to character and supporting roles after 1945, when she was billed below the title for the first time in 14 years inAdventure, which starredClark Gable andGreer Garson. She was also featured prominently inA Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) andNightmare Alley (1947). In 1948, she left the screen for three years and concentrated on theater, performing in summer stock and touring withCole Porter's musicalSomething for the Boys.[6] She later reprised her role of Aunt Sissy in the musical version ofA Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the national tour and played the nagging mother Mae Peterson in the national tour ofBye Bye Birdie.
Blondell returned to Hollywood in 1950. Her performance in her next film,The Blue Veil (1951), earned her anAcademy Award nomination forBest Actress in a Supporting Role.[6] She played supporting roles inThe Opposite Sex (1956),Desk Set (1957), andWill Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). She received considerable acclaim for her performance as Lady Fingers inNorman Jewison'sThe Cincinnati Kid (1965), garnering aGolden Globe nomination andNational Board of Review win for Best Supporting Actress.John Cassavetes cast her as a cynical, aging playwright in his filmOpening Night (1977). Blondell was widely seen in two films released not long before her death –Grease (1978), and the remake ofThe Champ (1979) withJon Voight andRick Schroder. She also appeared in two films released after her death –The Glove (1979), andThe Woman Inside (1981).
Blondell also guest-starred in various television programs, including three 1963 episodes as the character Aunt Win in the sitcomThe Real McCoys.
Also in 1963, Blondell was cast as the widowed Lucy Tutaine in the episode "The Train and Lucy Tutaine" on the seriesDeath Valley Days, hosted byStanley Andrews.
In March 1964, she appeared withWilliam Demarest inThe Twilight Zone episode "What's in the Box".[23] The following month Blondell,Joe E. Brown andBuster Keaton guest-starred in "You're All Right, Ivy", the final episode of the short-lived circus dramaThe Greatest Show on Earth, as well as the directorial debut of its starJack Palance.[24][25] In 1965, she was in the running to replaceVivian Vance as Lucille Ball's sidekick on the hit CBS television comedy seriesThe Lucy Show. After filming her second guest appearance as Joan Brenner (Lucy's new friend from California), Blondell walked off the set right after the episode had completed filming when Ball humiliated her by harshly criticizing her performance in front of the studio audience and technicians.[26]
Blondell continued working on television. In 1968, she guest-starred on the CBS sitcomFamily Affair, starringBrian Keith.[27] She replacedBea Benaderet, who was ill, for one episode on the CBS seriesPetticoat Junction. In that installment, Blondell played FloraBelle Campbell, a lady visitor toHooterville, who had once dated Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) and Sam Drucker (Frank Cady).[28] The same year, Blondell co-starred in all 52 episodes of the ABC seriesHere Come the Brides. Blondell received two consecutive Emmy nominations for outstanding continued performance by an actress in a dramatic series for her role as Lottie Hatfield.[29][30]
In 1971, she followedSada Thompson in the off-Broadway hitThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, with a youngSwoosie Kurtz playing one of her daughters.[31]
In 1972, she had an ongoing supporting role in the seriesBanyon as Peggy Revere, who operated a secretarial school in the same building as Banyon's detective agency. This was a 1930s period action drama starring Robert Forster in the title role. Her students worked in Banyon's office, providing fresh faces for the show weekly. The series was replaced midseason.[32]
Blondell has amotion pictures star on theHollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6311 Hollywood Boulevard.[33] In December 2007, theMuseum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a retrospective of Blondell's films in connection with a new biography by film professorMatthew Kennedy.[34] More recently her films have been screened by revival houses such asFilm Forum in Manhattan, theUCLA Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles, theHippodrome Cinema in Bo'ness, Scotland,[35][36][37][38] and at the 2019Lumière Film Festival in Grand Lyon, France.[39]
She wrote a novel titledCenter Door Fancy (New York: Delacorte Press, 1972), which was a thinly disguised autobiography with veiled references to June Allyson and Dick Powell.[11]: 10
In 2017, she was portrayed byKathy Bates inFeud: Bette and Joan.[40]
Blondell was married three times, first to cinematographerGeorge Barnes in a private wedding ceremony on January 4, 1933, at the First Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona.[41] They had one child, Norman Scott Barnes.[42] Blondell and Barnes divorced in 1936.[43]
On September 19, 1936, she married actorDick Powell.[44] They had a daughter, Ellen, who later became a studio hair stylist.[45] Powell legally adopted Blondell's sonNorman,[42] who later became a producer, director, and television executive.[46] Blondell and Powell divorced on July 14, 1944.[47]
Clark Gable proposed marriage to her in 1945 but she declined.[48][49]
On July 5, 1947, Blondell married producerMike Todd. Her marriage to Todd was an emotional and financial disaster that ended in divorce in 1950. She once accused him of holding her outside a hotel window by her ankles.[11] He was also a heavy spender who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling (high-stakesbridge was one of his weaknesses) and went through a controversial bankruptcy during their marriage. An often-repeated myth is that Mike Todd left Blondell forElizabeth Taylor, when in fact, she had left Todd of her own accord years before he met Taylor.[50][51]
Blondell died of leukemia in Santa Monica, California, on Christmas Day 1979, with her children and her sister at her bedside.[6] She was cremated and her ashes interred in a columbarium at theForest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[52] She was 73 years old.
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1929 | Broadway's Like That | Vitaphone Varieties release 960 (December 1929) Cast:Ruth Etting,Humphrey Bogart,Mary Philips[54]: 50 |
| 1930 | The Devil's Parade | Vitaphone Varieties release 992 (February 1930) Cast:Sidney Toler[54]: 52 |
| 1930 | The Heart Breaker | Vitaphone Varieties release 1012–1013 (March 1930) Cast:Eddie Foy, Jr.[54]: 53 |
| 1930 | An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee | |
| 1931 | How I Play Golf, number 10, "Trouble Shots" | Vitaphone release 4801 Cast:Bobby Jones,Joe E. Brown,Edward G. Robinson,Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.[54]: 226 |
| 1933 | Just Around the Corner | |
| 1934 | Hollywood Newsreel | |
| 1941 | Meet the Stars #2: Baby Stars | |
| 1965 | The Cincinnati Kid Plays According to Hoyle |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | The Untouchables | Hannah 'Lucy' Wagnall | Episode: "The Underground Court" |
| 1963 | The Virginian | Rosanna Dobie | Episode: "To Make This Place Remember" |
| 1963 | Wagon Train | Ma Bleecker | Episode: "The Bleecker Story" |
| 1963 | The Real McCoys | Aunt Winn | Season 6, Episodes 21 & 22 |
| 1964 | The Twilight Zone | Phyllis Britt | Episode: "What's in the Box" |
| 1964 | Bonanza | Lillian Manfred | Episode: "The Pressure Game" |
| 1965 | Petticoat Junction | Florabelle Campbell | Season 5, Episode 22 |
| 1965 | The Lucy Show | Joan Brenner | Episodes: "Lucy and Joan" & "Lucy the Stunt Man" |
| 1965 | My Three Sons | Harriet Blanchard | Episode: "Office Mother" |
| 1968 | Family Affair | Laura London | Episode: "Somebody Upstairs" |
| 1968–1970 | Here Come the Brides | Lottie Hatfield | 52 episodes[55][56] Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series(1969–70) |
| 1971 | McCloud | Ernestine White | Episode: "Top of the World, Ma" |
| 1971 | Love American Style | Episode: "Love and the Love Sick Sailor/Love and the Mistress/Love and the Reincarnation/Love and the Sexy Survey" | |
| 1972–1973 | Banyon | Peggy Revere | 8 episodes |
| 1973 | The Rookies | Mrs. Louise Darrin | Episode: "Cry Wolf" |
| 1976 | Starsky & Hutch | Mrs Pruitt | Episode "The Las Vegas Strangler" |
| 1978 | The Love Boat | Ramona Bevans | Episode: "Ship of Ghouls" |
| 1979 | The Rebels | Mrs. Brumple | TV movie |
| 1979 | Fantasy Island | Naomi Gittings | Episode:Bowling; Command Performance, —TV movie |
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Hollywood Star Time |
| Year | Organization | Work | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Academy Awards | The Blue Veil | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | [57] |
| 1958 | Tony Awards | The Rope Dancers | Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play | Nominated | [58] |
| 1960 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | N/a | Star – Motion Pictures | Won | [59] |
| 1965 | National Board of Review | The Cincinnati Kid | Best Supporting Actress | Won | [60] |
| 1966 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Nominated | [61] | |
| 1969 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Here Come the Brides | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Nominated | [62] |
| 1970 | Nominated | ||||
| 1978 | Golden Globe Awards | Opening Night | Best Supporting Actress– Motion Picture | Nominated | [61] |
The Katzenjammer Kids will be presented in Franklin this evening, the company having passed through here this morning on the way to that place. "Eddie Blondell's true name is Levi Bluestein, and he was a resident of Columbus many years ago, living with his father at the foot of Washington street"
No allowance was made for alimony, but Mrs. Blondell seemed to be satisfied. The Blondells, who in private life were Mr. and Mrs. Levi Bluestein, have been annoyed by a case of incompatibility of temper for a long time. They were formerly a member of Katzenjammer Kids' company....
Rowland & Clifford, a western producing firm, have also a production in preparation under the title of 'The Katzenjammer Kids', securing the rights from Blondell & Fennessy. Both shows are scheduled to play over the International, with the Hill production to be ready by Jan. 1.
I love flowers, particularly roses, which I grow in our own garden at Beverly Hills, and one of my chief interests is in the business of my brother, Ed Blondell, Jr., who is a florist in Los Angeles. Ed is the only one of our family who is a non-professional. Gloria, my sister, is in pictures, too, although thus far it has never been our good fortune to work together. Maybe that will happen some day. Ed did a little trouping in vaudeville before he settled down to a commercial life. [...] As they say in vaudeville, 'everybody knows everybody else at least for a week,' and it was my good fortune to know most of the headliners of the period [...] To all of these good folks I was 'Rosebud' Blondell. That name was acquired when at the Elmwood school in Chicago the students put on a show called 'In a Garden of Girls,' and I impersonated a rose and danced. A few old friends still call me Rosebud, but in the family the nickname has been shortened to 'Buddie' or 'Bud.' and that's pretty much in general use by all the Blondells.
Following is a list of the thirteen starlets of 1931:Joan Blondell, First National.Constance Cummings, Columbia studio.Frances Dade, United Artists.Sidney Fox, Universal.Frances Dee, Paramount.Rochelle Hudson, R. K. O.Anita Louise, Universal.Joan Marsh, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Marian Marsh, Warner Brothers.Karen Morley, M. G. M.Marion Shilling, Pathe.Barbara Weeks, United Artists.Judith Wood, Paramount.
Twilight Zone—9:30 p. m., Ch. 3, 12 "What's in the Box?" The "box" is a TV set, the villain of the piece. Bill Demarest is very good as a harassed man, bedeviled by a nagging wife (Joan Blondell). He sees himself on this strange TV set, but his wife, watching simultaneously, can't see him and believes he's nuts.
Greatest Show on Earth (9 p. m., Channel 34) — "You're All Right, Ivy." The big news in tonight's episode is that the combination of excellent performances from such old pros as Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown and Joan Blondell, plus the directorial debut of series star Jack Palance, doesn't alter the essential character of the series. The problems still outweigh the fun.
In 'Joan Blondell: The Bombshell From 91st Street,' the Museum of Modern Art pays tribute to her long career with a series of 13 films. On Friday 'Footlight Parade,' a rapid-fire musical, and the very rarely shown 'Blue Veil' will be introduced by Matthew Kennedy, the author of a new biography, 'Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes.'
Night Nurse (William Wellman, 1931) & Hold Your Man (Sam Wood, 1933). Hard-boiled and delicious, working gal pals Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell handle the low life, while Jean Harlow's equally tough floozy sticks by her criminal boyfriend Clark Gable. February 17. [...] Me and My Gal (Raoul Walsh, 1932) & Central Park (John G. Adolfi, 1932). Spencer Tracy's insouciant flatfoot romances Joan Bennett's saucy hash-slinger in a delightfully lumpen comedy; homeless cutie Joan Blondell teams with jobless hunk Wallace Ford for a series of madcap adventures on the wild side of New York's most famous park. March 2.
James Cagney and Jean Harlow in 'The Public Enemy' (1931). Above, Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak in 'Three On a Match' (1932).
Always a super-trouper, rarely a stand-alone star, Joan Blondell is an unexpected choice to be the focus of a full-dress Barbara Stanwyck/Greta Garbo-style UCLA Film & Television Archive career retrospective. But here she is front and center in "Blonde Crazy: Joan Blondell," a five-week, 14-film tribute beginning Friday at the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood, big as life, twice as sassy and something of a revelation.
The historic Hippodrome cinema will be screening a season of rule-breaking Hollywood movies starting with the Jimmy Cagney and Joan Blondell 1931 comedy Blonde Crazy this weekend.
D'abord Blonde Crazy en 1931. Les ingrédients du style pré-code s'y trouvent réunis: tempo vif de la mise en scene, inventivité du récit et des dialogues, crudité des situations. Ces films sont courts et denses, lucides et gorgés de vie. Filmé avec aisance et simplicité, Blonde Crazy est porté par un duo d'acteurs dont on ressent le plaisir qu'ils ont à jouer ensemble, jusque dans les intonations de leurs répliques spirituelles: Joan Blondell et James Cagney.
PHOENIX, Ariz., Jan. 4 (AP) [...] Miss Blondell and Barnes were married here today by the Rev. Dr. Charles S. Polling, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, in his study. [...] Miss Blondell and Barnes, who met in 1931, when he was a cameraman for a picture in which she starred, were reported married in the state of Washington several months ago. They denied the report on their return from a vacation trip but recently Miss Blondell, questioned by a friend, tacitly admitted a ceremony had been performed. Barnes's divorce from his former wife became final before Christmas.
Norman Scott Powell is 6. Has been Dick's legally adopted son since January, 1938, when George Barnes (Joan's first husband and a good pal of Dick's) relinquished all claim to him.
Joan Blondell of the movies, who has obtained final divorce decree from George Barnes, cameraman, interlocutory decree having been granted a year ago. Hollywood is speculating on whether she will marry Dick Powell, actor.
Hollywood, Sept. 19—Thousands of curious jammed the docks at nearby San Pedro tonight as Joan Blondell and Dick Powell, popular motion-picture couple, were married aboard their honeymoon ship.
Joan's daughter Ellen has made peace with her tumultuous past. [...] Semi-retired in Northern California after working twenty-five years as a journeyman hair stylist in Local 706, she occasionally returns to Hollywood. She was on the Emmy-nominated team that hair-styledStar Trek: Deep Space 9 andDeadwood.
Veteran Hollywood producer/director/network executive Norman S. Powell passed away on June 16th at the age of 86...The son of Hollywood Golden Age stars Joan Blondell and Dick Powell, Norman graduated from the Lawrenceville School and Cornell University.
LOS ANGELES, July 14 (AP)—Joan Blondell, actress, got a divorce in four minutes today from Dick Powell, singer, on her testimony that he had been guilty of numerous acts of cruelty, including a demand that she 'get the hell out of the house.' [...] She said he insisted on using their home for his office, that two telephones were ringing almost constantly, and that she was unable to get any rest or privacy. Mr. Powell did not appear to oppose the divorce.
