Joan Marsh

Pretty Joan Marsh in a 1931 portrait study by photographer Clarence Sinclair Bull. Joan was born Nancy Ann Rosher on July 10, 1914, in Porterville, California. She was the daughter of Hollywood cinematographer Charles Rosher and appeared as a child in silent films. In 1915 she made her first film appearance, an uncredited one, in the short "The Mad Maid of the Forest", which her father was filming. Later that same year she was also cast in "Hearts Aflame" and then billed as Dorothy Rosher. In 1917 she appeared in "A Little Princess" and in no less than five other productions in 1918. After these minor roles, Marsh finally became a star in Mary Pickford films such as "Daddy-Long-Legs" (1919) and "Pollyanna" (1920). She made her last film appearance as a child in 1921 but returned to films nine years later with a role in "King of Jazz" (1930), in which she sang with Bing Crosby. She subsequently worked in a series of shorts and other feature films before she played W. C. Fields's daughter in "You're Telling Me!" in 1934. A fairly busy actress, alternating leads and second leads throughout the decade and into the mid-40s, she is perhaps best remembered opposite Warner Oland in "Charlie Chan on Broadway" (1937) and as Dimples in "Road to Zanzibar" (1941). Long under contract to MGM, she was also featured in two Greta Garbo films, "Inspiration" (1931) and "Anna Karenina" (1935). Joan Marsh was also an accomplished dancer, especially adept at the two most popular dances of the era, the Charleston and the Black Bottom. On screen she performed a ballroom routine with Edward J. Nugent in "Dancing Feet" (1936). Marsh retired from acting after her final picture "Follow The Leader" (1944) and in later years owned a Los Angeles stationary business, Paper Unlimited. Her first husband was the screenwriter Charles Belden, her second, Captain John Morrill of Army Air Transport Command. Her hobbies included horse riding, tennis and golf. Joan Marsh passed away at age 87 in Ojai, California in 2000.

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