“I believe in the dollar. Everything I earn, I spend.” – Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford Biography

Lucille Fay LeSueur was the birth name of Hollywood actress Joan Crawford when she was born in San Antonio, Texas, USA. She was born on 23 March, although the year is somewhat contested. She claimed herself that she was born in 1908, but according to her daughter Christine she was born in 1904 and lied about her age when she arrived in Hollywood. Lucille was the third of three children born to her parents Thomas E. LeSueur and Anna Bell Johnson. Her sister, Daisy, died before she was born but she also had an elder brother called Hal. Thomas left the family shortly before Lucille’s birth and so her mother re-married. Her step-father, Henry J. Cassin ran the Ramsey Opera House in Lawton, Oklahoma where the family lived and Lucille enjoyed watching the acts performing on the stage.

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Lucille’s schooling never progressed much beyond elementary school but she knew from a young age that she wanted to be a dancer. However, an accident with a broken milk bottle left her requiring surgery to repair her damaged foot and so she had 18 months away from her dancing lessons.

After being accused of embezzlement in 1916, Cassin found himself blacklisted in Lawton, even though he had been acquitted by the court, and so he and the family moved to Kansas City, where Lucille was placed in the St. Agnes Academy. There, after her mother and step-father separated, she remained, having to do more work such as cooking and cleaning than actually studying. She then went to Rockingham Academy and in 1922 to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri but withdrew soon after, realising she wasn’t ready for college.

She started dancing under her birth name in choruses and travelling reviews and was placed in the chorus line for a Broadway show called Innocent Eyes in 1924. At the same time, wanting additional work, she approached Nils Granlund, a publicist for Loews Theatres. He arranged a screen test which was sent by him to Hollywood and on 24 December 1924 he received an offer from MGM for a $75 per week contract. Lucille borrowed $400 for travel expenses and arrived in California on 1 January 1925.

Her first film was Lady of the Night in 1925 in which she was credited still as Lucille LeSueur. She played the body double of the film’s star Norma Shearer and a number of other similarly small parts came her way during the same year. She had been recognised as having the potential to become a star but it was felt that her name sounded fake. So, a competition was arranged to “Name the Star” in Movie Weekly, and Joan Crawford was born.

In 1925 she was cast in Sally, Irene and Mary and this would be the first film in which her true potential as an actress could be seen by the audience. In 1926 she was named as one of the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers Baby Stars, along with Fay Wray, Janet Gaynor and Mary Astor and within a few years she started to play the female romantic lead to many of the big name actors of the era including John Gilbert, William Haynes and Tim McCoy. Crawford stated that when she played the scantily-clad female assistant to Lon Chaney Senior’s knife thrower with no arms in 1927’s The Unknown she “became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting”. She credited Chaney with being the single most influential person in her life in terms of what acting is all about.

Her springboard moment came when she played the role of Diana Medford in 1928’s Our Dancing Daughters and a number of hits followed quickly afterwards.

On 3 June 1929, Joan Crawford married Douglas Fairbanks Jr. His parents, Hollywood ‘royal couple’ Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were opposed to the marriage and would not allow the newlyweds to visit ...