“I don’t know what the secret to longevity as an actress is. It’s more than talent and beauty. Maybe it’s the audience seeing itself in you.”
Joan Blondell was born to a vaudeville family in New York City in 1906. Joan’s father, Eddie Joan Blondell, Jr. was a vaudeville comedian and one of the original Katzenjammer Kids. Joan made her stage debut at the age of 3 and for years toured the circuit with her parents, finally joining a stock company when she was 17. Joan won the 1926 Miss Dallas pageant under the name Rosebud Blondell and in the same year, placed fourth for Miss America in New Jersey. Joan returned to New York in 1927 to become an actress and performed on Broadway. In 1930, Joan starred in the play, “Penny Arcade” opposite James Cagney which only ran for three weeks although Al Jolson saw it and bought the rights to the play for $20,000. He then sold the rights to Warner Brothers on condition that Blondell and Cagney be cast in the film version. Joan Blondell moved to Hollywood where she was placed under contract by Warners although she refused to change her name to “Inez Holmes” as Jack Warner, the studio head, wanted her to. Joan began to appear in short subjects and in 1931 was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, following in the footsteps of Joan Crawford and Jean Arthur.
Joan Blondell embodied the Depression era gold-digger during the 1930’s and with her blonde hair and blue eyes became a crowd favorite, appearing in more Warners films than any other actress. Following their success on stage, Joan was paired with James Cagney several times in films including “Sinners’ Holiday” (1930), the film version of “Penny Arcade” and “The Public Enemy” (1931) and starred as one half of a gold-digging duo with Glenda Farrell in nine films. Joan was one of the highest paid individuals in the United States during the Great Depression. In 1933, Joan starred in “Gold Diggers of 1933″ alongside Dick Powell with whom she would star in a further nine films and whom she later married and Ginger Rogers. Her moving rendition of “Remember My Forgotten Man“ became an unofficial anthem for the frustrations of the unemployed and President Herbert Hoover’s failed economic policies.
Despite having left Warner Brothers in 1939 to become an independent actress, Joan had made almost 50 films by the end of the decade. Although Joan was relegated to character and supporting roles after the mid-1940’s, she continued to work regularly for the rest of her life and was well received. Blondell starred in “The Blue Veil” in 1951 for which she received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and also starred in “Will Success Spoil Rick Hunter” (1957) and the notable “The Cincinnati Kid” in 1965. Shortly before her death, Joan was widely seen in two popular films, “Grease” (1978) and the remake of “The Champ” in 1979 with Jon Voight and Rick Schroder.
Offscreen, Joan Blondell was married three times: to cinematographer George Barnes, actor, director and singer Dick Powell and finally to producer Mike Todd, which proved to be an emotional and financial disaster and whom she divorced in 1950. Joan has a son from her first marriage and a daughter from her second marriage.
Joan Blondell died in California in 1979 at the age of 73, with her children and sister at her bedside. Blondell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures.
