Joan Bennett on the December, 1945 issue of Movie Story Magazine

Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American film actress who also achieved success later in life as a television actress. Image File history File linksMetadata JoanBennett01. ... Image File history File linksMetadata JoanBennett01. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor or actress is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ...

Early life

Born in Palisades Park, New Jersey, Bennett was the youngest of 3 daughters of stage actors Richard Bennett and Adrienne Morrison, and was the younger sister of actresses Constance Bennett and Barbara Bennett (the mother of Morton Downey, Jr.). Map highlighting Palisades Parks location within Bergen County. ... For the British composer named Richard Bennett, see Richard Rodney Bennett. ... Constance Bennett on the cover of a 1930s magazine Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 - July 24, 1965) was a US actress known more for her elegant persona than her acting talents. ... Morton Downey, Jr. ...

Joan Bennett and her siblings were also the grand-daughters of prominent stage actor Morris W. Morris, who was of African descent. Morris, who was born in Jamaica (West Indies), was a Civil War veteran who served in the "Blacks" division of the Louisiana Native Guards. Morris W. Morris as Mephistopheles in Faust Morris W. Morris stage name Lewis Morrison (1845) Jamaica West Indies 20 August 1906 Long Island, New York was a stage actor best known for his longtime performance in the role of Mephistopheles in Faust. ...

Career rise

Bennett made her first film appearance in 1918 in an uncredited part and appeared in a few silent films while a child. She married at the age of 16, and when this marriage ended two years later, resumed her acting career. Year 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

Contracted to 20th Century Fox she appeared as a blonde (her natural color) ingenue in a several films including Puttin' on the Ritz in 1930 and Me and My Gal in 1932, before leaving this studio to appear in Little Women (1933). She was not taken seriously as an actress and struggled to establish herself. Her task was further complicated by the rapid rise to fame of her sister Constance, who at this time was one of Hollywood's most successful and popular actresses, and with whom she was unfavourably compared. Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... Puttin on the Ritz is a popular song written and published in 1929 by Irving Berlin. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... Me and My Gal is a 1932 American motion picture drama and romantic comedy made by the Fox Film Corporation. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Little Women (1886) is a novel by Louisa May Alcott published on September 30, 1868, concerning the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... ...

She signed a contract with producer Walter Wanger, whom she would later marry in 1940. He managed her career, and with director Tay Garnett convinced her to change her hair from blonde to brunette. With this change her screen persona evolved into that of a glamorous seductress and she began to attract attention. Walter Wanger (July 11, 1894 - November 18, 1968) was an important American film producer. ... Tay Garnett was a movie director who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ...

During the search to find an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Bennett was tested and impressed producer David O. Selznick. She was briefly considered to be a front runner for this part but Selznick eventually turned his attention to Paulette Goddard, who was then rejected in favour of Vivien Leigh. Scarlett OHara (full name Katie Scarlett OHara Hamilton Kennedy Butler) is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel, Gone with the Wind, and in the later film of the same name. ... Gone with the Wind, one of the most popular films of all time, and the most enduring symbol of the golden age of Hollywood, is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel of the same name. ... David O. Selznick David Oliver Selznick (May 10, 1902–June 22, 1965), was one of the icon Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. ... Paulette Goddard (June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an Oscar-nominated American film and theatre actress. ... Vivien Leigh (November 5, 1913 – July 8, 1967) was an English actress. ...

In the early 1940s Bennett appeared in four films directed by Fritz Lang. Three of them (Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street) established her as a film noir femme fatale. She also worked with noted directors Jean Renoir in The Woman on the Beach. and Max Ophüls in The Reckless Moment. She also played the wife of Spencer Tracy and mother of Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride (1950) and its sequel, Father's Little Dividend (1951). Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-American film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known émigrés from Germanys school of expressionism. ... Man Hunt is the twelfth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dads Army that was originally transmitted on Thursday 27 November 1969. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Directed by Fritz Lang, The Woman in the Window, a black-and-white film noir, is the story of psychology professor Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), who meets and falls in love with a young femme fatale. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Scarlet Street is an American film noir from 1945. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979), born in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France was a film director. ... Max Ophüls (May 6, 1902 – March 25, 1957) was a German-born Jewish film director. ... The Reckless Moment is a 1949 black-and-white melodrama film directed by Max Ophüls. ... Spencer Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American film actor who appeared in 74 films from 1930 to 1967. ... For other persons named Elizabeth Taylor, see Elizabeth Taylor (disambiguation). ... Father of the Bride is a 1950 comedy film which tells the story of a man trying to cope with all of the disasters that happen along the way from the time that his daughter announces that shes engaged, until the wedding actually occurs. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... A sequel is a work of fiction in literature, film, and other creative works that is produced after a completed work, and is set in the same universe but at a later time. ... Fathers Little Dividend is a 1951 comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

Scandal

Midway through her career, Bennett had changed agents. In 1951 Wanger shot and injured Bennett's new agent, with whom she had begun an affair, and the resulting scandal damaged her career. Wanger spent 2 years in prison for the offense, but he and Bennett remained married until 1965. A scandal is a widely publicized incident involving allegations of wrong-doing, disgrace, or moral outrage. ...

She continued to work steadily in theatre and television and was a cast member of the television series Dark Shadows for its entire five year run, from 1966 until 1971, receiving an Emmy Award nomination for her performance therein. Bennett also appeared in a few more films, most notably Dario Argento's Suspiria. A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... Dark Shadows was a Gothic television soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... An Emmy Award. ... Suspiria is a 1977 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento, and co-written by Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi, whom Argento was romantically involved with at the time. ...

In the last decades of her life, she was married to David Wilde, a wealthy businessman. Bennett died from a heart attack in Scarsdale, New York at the age of 80, and was buried in Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ... Scarsdale is both a town and village in Westchester County, New York, USA postal code 10583. ... Lyme is a town located in New London County, Connecticut. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ...

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for services to Motion Pictures, at 6310 Hollywood Boulevard. A band plays on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ...

Filmography

• The Valley of Decision (1916)
• The Eternal City (1923)
• Power (1928)
• The Divine Lady (1929)
• Bulldog Drummond (1929)
• Three Live Ghosts (1929)
• Disraeli (1929)
• The Mississippi Gambler (1929)
• Puttin' on the Ritz (1930)
• Crazy That Way (1930)
• Moby Dick (1930)
• Maybe It's Love (1930)
• Scotland Yard (1930)
• Many a Slip (1931)
• Doctors' Wives (1931)
• Hush Money (1931)
• Screen Snapshots (1932) (short subject)
• She Wanted a Millionaire (1932)
• Careless Lady (1932)
• The Trial of Vivienne Ware (1932)
• Week Ends Only (1932)
• Wild Girl (1932)
• Me and My Gal (1932)
• Arizona to Broadway (1933)
• Little Women (1933)
• The Pursuit of Happiness (1934)
• The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934)
• The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935) (short subject)
• Private Worlds (1935)
• Mississippi (1935)
• Two for Tonight (1935)
• She Couldn't Take It (1935)
• The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
• Big Brown Eyes (1936)
• Thirteen Hours by Air (1936)
• Two in a Crowd (1936)
• Wedding Present (1936)
• Hollywood Party (1937) (short subject)
• Vogues of 1938 (1937)
• I Met My Love Again (1938)
• The Texans (1938)
• Artists and Models Abroads (1938)
• Trade Winds (1938)
• The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
• The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939)
• Green Hell (1940)
• The House Across the Bay (1940)
• The Man I Married (1940)
• The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
• She Knew All the Answers (1941)
• Man Hunt (1941)
• Wild Geese Calling (1941)
• Confirm or Deny (1941)
• The Wife Takes a Flyer (1942)
• Twin Beds (1942)
• Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6 (1942) (short subject)
• Girl Trouble (1942)
• Margin for Error (1943)
• The Woman in the Window (1944)
• Nob Hill (1945)
• Scarlet Street (1945)
• Colonel Effingham's Raid (1946)
• The Macomber Affair (1947)
• The Woman on the Beach (1947)
• Secret Beyond the Door... (1948)
• Hollow Triumph (1948)
• The Reckless Moment (1949)
• Father of the Bride (1950)
• For Heaven's Sake (1950)
• Father's Little Dividend (1951)
• The Guy Who Came Back (1951)
• Highway Dragnet (1954)
• We're No Angels (1955)
• There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
• Navy Wife (1956)
• Desire in the Dust (1960)
• House of Dark Shadows (1970)
• Suspiria (1977)

Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The Divine Lady is a 1929 film which tells the story of the love affair between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Bulldog Drummond is a 1929 detective film which tells the story of Captain Hugh Bulldog Drummond, a British officer bored with civilian life, who investigates an extortion case for a beautiful girl. ... Disraeli is a 1929 film that was adapted by Julien Josephson and De Leon Anthony from a play by Louis N. Parker. ... Puttin on the Ritz is a popular song written and published in 1929 by Irving Berlin. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... Moby-Dick[1] is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Wild Girl is a 1932 film starring Charles Farrell, Joan Bennett, Ralph Bellamy, and Eugene Pallette. ... Me and My Gal is a 1932 American motion picture drama and romantic comedy made by the Fox Film Corporation. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Little Women (1933) directed by George Cukor is based upon Louisa May Alcotts novel of the same name. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Private Worlds is a 1935 film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital, and the chief of the hospital who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. ... She Couldnt Take It is a 1935 film comedy starring George Raft and Joan Bennett, and directed by Tay Garnett. ... Big Brown Eyes is a 1936 crime/detective film. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... There have been several movies entitled The Man in the Iron Mask, all based on the final section of the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, which was itself based on the 18th century legend of The Man in the Iron Mask. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The House Across the Bay is a 1940 film directed by Archie Mayo, written by Myles Connolly and Kathryn Scola. ... The Son of Monte Cristo is a 1940 Black-and-white film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, George Sanders. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Margin of Error is a 1939 play by American playwright Clare Boothe Luce. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... Directed by Fritz Lang, The Woman in the Window, a black-and-white film noir, is the story of psychology professor Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), who meets and falls in love with a young femme fatale. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Scarlet Street is an American film noir from 1945. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... DVD cover of French release Secret Beyond the Door. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Hollow Triumph, also known as The Scar, is a black-and-white film released in 1948. ... The Reckless Moment is a 1949 black-and-white melodrama film directed by Max Ophüls. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Father of the Bride is a 1950 comedy film which tells the story of a man trying to cope with all of the disasters that happen along the way from the time that his daughter announces that shes engaged, until the wedding actually occurs. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Fathers Little Dividend is a 1951 comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Were no Angels is a 1955 comedy picture starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... House of Dark Shadows is a 1970 feature-length horror film by Dan Curtis based on his Dark Shadows television series. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Suspiria is a 1977 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento, and co-written by Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi, whom Argento was romantically involved with at the time. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

External links

• Joan Bennett at the Internet Movie Database
• Joan Geraldine Bennett