Joan Crawford Biography

Fast Facts

• Introduced to showbiz at an early age by her stepfather, who was a vaudeville theater manager
• Dance lessons led to work on Broadway and in nightclubs as a teenager, performing under the name Billie Cassin
• Although she was initially credited with her given name Lucille LeSueur, MGM later dubbed her Joan Crawford after a nationwide publicity contest
• With more than 20 films under her belt, broke out as a star in 1928's Our Dancing Daughters
• Labeled "box-office poison" by an exhibitors' poll in 1938
• Was released from MGM by Louis B
• Mayer, but regained her stature at Warner Bros
• , which led to an Oscar-winning performance in 1945's Mildred Pierce
• After three failed marriages to actors, wed Pepsi-Cola chairman Alfred Steele in 1956 and became active on the company's board of directors
• In 1968, at the age of 60, she appeared on the soap The Secret Storm, substituting for her ailing daughter Christina, 30 years her junior
• Appeared in the 1969 pilot of Rod Serling's anthology series Night Gallery
• Her segment was directed by newcomer Steven Spielberg
• After her death, her adopted daughter Christina published a scathing tell-all book, Mommie Dearest