Joan Blondell

Joan Blondell was born on Aug 30, 1906 in USA. Joan Blondell's big-screen debut came with Sinners' Holiday directed by John G. Adolfi in 1930. Joan Blondell is known for Opening Night directed by John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands stars as Myrtle Gordon and John Cassavetes as Maurice Aarons. Joan Blondell has got 2 awards and 5 nominations so far. The most recent award Joan Blondell achieved is National Board of Review, USA. The upcoming new movie Joan Blondell plays is The Glove which will be released on Aug 06, 1981.

With blonde hair, big blue eyes and a big smile, Joan Blondell was usually cast as the wisecracking working girl who was the lead's best friend.Joan was born Rose Blondell in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of Katie and Eddie Blondell, who were vaudeville performers. Her father was a Polish Jewish immigrant, and her mother was of Irish heritage. Joan was on the stage when she was three years old. For years, she toured the circuit with her parents and joined a stock company when she was 17. She made her New York debut with the Ziegfeld Follies and appeared in several Broadway productions.She was starring with James Cagney on Broadway in "Penny Arcade" (1929) when Warner Brothers decided to film the play as Sinners' Holiday (1930). Both Cagney and Joan were given the leads, and the film was a success. She would be teamed with Cagney again in L'ennemi public (1931) and Blonde Crazy (1931) among others. In The Office Wife (1930), she stole the scene when she was dressing for work. While Warner Brothers made Cagney a star, Joan never rose to that level. In gangster movies or musicals, her performances were good enough for second leads, but not first lead. In the 1930s, she made a career playing gold-diggers and happy-go-lucky girlfriends. She would be paired with Dick Powell in ten musicals during these years, and they were married for ten years. By 1939, Joan had left Warner Brothers to become an independent actress, but by then, the blonde role was being defined by actresses like Veronica Lake. Her work slowed greatly as she went into straight comedy or dramatic roles. Three of her better roles were in La dernière enquête de Mr. Topper (1941), Cry 'Havoc' (1943), and Le Lys de Brooklyn (1945). By the 50s, Joan would garner an Academy Award nomination for La femme au voile bleu (1951), but her biggest career successes would be on the stage, including a musical version of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."In 1957, Joan would again appear on the screen as a drunk in Lizzie (1957) and as mature companion to Jayne Mansfield in La blonde explosive (1957). While she would appear in a number of television shows during the 50s and 60s, she had the regular role of Winifred on The Real McCoys (1957) during the 1963 season. Her role in the drama Le Kid de Cincinnati (1965) was well received, but most of her remaining films would be comedies such as L'or des pistoleros (1967) and Tueur malgré lui (1971). Still in demand for TV, she was cast as Lottie on Here Come the Brides (1968) and as Peggy on Banyon (1971).