orig. Lucille Fay LeSueur
born March 23, 1908, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
died May 10, 1977, New York, N.Y.
U.S. film actress.
She was a dancer in a Broadway chorus line when she won her first Hollywood contract in the mid 1920s. After portraying flappers in such films as Our Dancing Daughters (1928), she played opportunistic girls in such Depression-era dramas as Grand Hotel (1932) and The Women (1939). With her dark eyebrows, padded shoulders, and hysterical intensity, she reinvented herself as a suffering heroine in Mildred Pierce (1945, Academy Award) and in psychological melodramas including Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952). Her later films included Queen Bee (1955) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
Joan Crawford, 0441; 1934.
Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive, New York City