Joan Bennett

Dazzling Joan Bennett in a 1939 glamour sitting by photographer Ray Jones. Bennett was born on February 27, 1910, in Palisades, New Jersey. She appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent films, well into the sound era. One of her earliest films was “Power” (1928), with Alan Hale and Carole Lombard, a small role but a start. The next year she starred in “Bulldog Drummond” (1929), sharing top billing with Ronald Colman. Before the year was out she was in three more films—“Disraeli” (1929), “The Mississippi Gambler” (1929) and “Three Live Ghosts” (1929). She made 14 films under a Fox contract, mostly as pretty blonde ingénues, such as "Me and My Gal" (1932) and “She Wanted A Millionaire” (1932). Leaving Fox to appear in "Little Women" (1933), she then signed a personal contract with independent producer Walter Wanger, who managed her career from then on. When Wanger and director Tay Garnett made her a brunette for "Trade Winds" (1938), the seemingly trivial change drastically altered her screen image from pretty ingénue to smoldering temptress. Dark-haired for the rest of her career, she made her finest films in the 1940s with director Fritz Lang in "Man Hunt" (1941), "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlet Street" (1945). In December 1951, Wanger (by then her husband of 11 years) shot her agent in a jealous rage; the resulting scandal almost ending Bennett's film career. Aside from TV-movies, she made six more theatrical films. From 1950 through the1970s she worked steadily in theatre and TV, starring for five years in "Dark Shadows" (1966), for which she received an Emmy nomination. For her final movie role, as Madame Blanc in Dario Argento's cult horror film "Suspiria" (1977), she received a Saturn Award nomination. Her final public performance was in the TV movie "Divorce Wars: A Love Story" (1982). On December 7, 1990, Bennett passed away of a heart attack in Scarsdale, New York, aged 80 years old.

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