dancing lady

I used my body, my face, my walk, my mannerisms to project what the character is.

– Joan Crawford

Joan’s career, which spanned almost half a century, spawned over 83 films— from silents to talkies to technicolor. With these pictures, she was given a wide variety of roles: extra, chorine, flapper, shopgirl, the other woman, scarred lady, trucking magnate, restaurant owner, dancer, stenographer, playwright, Western boss, crippled lady, psychotic woman, circus owner, doctor… all the possible roles you could imagine!

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But out of all the characters she portrayed, there are few which definitely stand out until now. These roles have cemented her name in the motion picture industry and made her beyond famous. These characters have made their way into our hearts, as well. Sometimes, we even associate Joan with the roles she played. That’s how big the impact of her roles are.

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Here are, in my opinion, Joan’s most memorable roles ever:

(Nanon Zanzi in The Unknown, 1927)

(Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters, 1928)

(Marian Martin in Possessed, 1931)

(Letty Lynton in Letty Lynton, 1932)

(Sadie Thompson in Rain, 1932)

(Janie Barlow in Dancing Lady, 1933)

(Sadie McKee in Sadie McKee, 1934)

(Crystal Allen in The Women, 1939)

(Anna Holm in A Woman’s Face, 1941)

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(Mildred Pierce in Mildred Pierce, 1945)

(Helen Wright in Humoresque, 1946)

(Louise Howell in Possessed, 1947)

(Myra Hudson in Sudden Fear, 1952)

(Jenny Stewart in Torch Song, 1953)

(Vienna in Johnny Guitar, 1954)

(Eva Phillips in Queen Bee, 1955)

(Millicent Wetherby in Autumn Leaves, 1956)

(Blance Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962)

(Lucy Harbin in Strait Jacket, 1964)

Agree or disagree? Feel free to comment— just no bashing or irrational, violent reactions. 🙂 Thank you!

Happy blogging (and fangirling!)

(All photos from Joan Crawford Best)

“He was a king wherever he went. He walked like one, he behaved like one, and he was the most masculine male I have ever met in my life.”

– Joan Crawford (on The David Frost Show, 1970)

Fandom-speaking, I want everyone to know that I ship these two legends. They are my OTP (one true pair).

Joan Crawford and Clark Gable were never married, yet they remain one of Hollywood’s most remembered couples. Theirs was a love affair that was brighter than the sun, hotter than fire, wild as a jungle animal, and on-again/off-again as a flickering light.

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Their first movie together was the 1931 picture Dance, Fools, Dance. Speaking about the first time she met Clark, Joan said, “It was like an electric current went through my body… my knees buckled… if he hadn’t held me by the shoulders, I’d have dropped.”

(What might have been…)

After Dance, Fools, Dance, they made seven more pictures— Laughing Sinners (1931), Possessed (1931), Dancing Lady (1933), Chained (1934), Forsaking All Others (1934), Love On The Run (1936) and Strange Cargo (1940)— all under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For the whole duration of the Thriving Thirties, Crawford and Gable (as they are famously called) became the brightest stars of MGM… and the public were crazy for their intense chemistry.

Joan was once quoted that Clark was the love of her life. Even though they both had many affairs, marriages and divorces (just not with each other), they remained close until his death in 1960.

In a way, they were very similar— both were strong, independent actors who won’t let anyone dominate them. Maybe this was one of the reasons why marriage never became an option for them… which is a good thing, I think. In my opinion, it’s better that they had an affair that created friendship, than a marriage ruining one.