Joan Leslie

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Joan Leslie (1945)

Joan Leslie Caldwell (born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel on January 26, 1925 in Detroit , Michigan , † October 12, 2015 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress . She starred in the Oscar-winning films Sergeant York and Yankee Doodle Dandy .

Life

Joan Brodel, the youngest daughter of a bank clerk and a pianist, appeared on the first theater stages at the age of three. She learned various instruments from her mother. When the father lost his job during the Great Depression , Brodel toured various vaudeville stages in the United States and Canada with her sisters . In 1936, eleven-year-old Joan got her first film contract with MGM and played a small role alongside Greta Garbo in George Cukor's The Lady of the Camellias . Until 1940 she could be seen in smaller children's roles for various studios, but without achieving the breakthrough. She also appeared on the radio and worked as a model. In 1939 she had her first substantial role in the film Winter Carnival at the side of Ann Sheridan . After joining Warner Brothers , she changed her name to Joan Leslie, as Warner Brothers found that her maiden name, Joan Brodel, was too similar to Joan Blondell's .

She became a movie star in 1941 in the role of the crippled girl Velma in the film Decision in the Sierra at the side of Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino . Also in 1941, Leslie was cast in the biography Sergeant York by director Howard Hawks . She played in it - although only 16 years old - the fiancée of the war hero Alvin C. York, played by Gary Cooper . Sergeant York was nominated for a total of eleven Academy Awards. Directed by Michael Curtiz , she played Yankee Doodle Dandy , the wife of Broadway producer George M. Cohan , played by James Cagney in a similarly successful 1942 film . Often Leslie also played the younger sister of the main character, such as Olivia de Havilland in The Male Animal (1942) and Ida Lupino in The Hard Way (1943). As a partner of Fred Astaire , Leslie also appeared musically in the 1943 comedy The Sky's the Limit (1943). In 1945 she played the leading female role in the film Rhapsody in Blue about the life of George Gershwin . During World War II , Leslie was also a member of the Hollywood Canteen .

Joan Leslie was increasingly dissatisfied in the mid-1940s, as she only played “young naive” roles in the same role model. She went to court to get out of her contract with Warner Brothers. She succeeded, but afterwards Leslie only received offers from smaller film studios: Warner Brothers studio boss Jack L. Warner had blacklisted her in Hollywood. She shot numerous B-movies - especially westerns - for smaller film studios, and she took on her last film role in 1956. After that she mainly devoted herself to raising her two daughters. Until the early 1990s, Joan Leslie sporadically made appearances on television, including in series such as Charlie's Angels , The Incredible Hulk , Simon & Simon and Mord ist her hobby .

From 1950 until his death in 2000, Joan Leslie was with Dr. William G. Caldwell with whom she had two children. A star on the Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street commemorates the actress. In 1999, she was one of 250 actresses shortlisted by the American Film Institute for the list of America's 25 Greatest Female Film Legends . Joan Leslie died on October 12, 2015 at the age of 90 in Los Angeles.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Joan Leslie  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1942 LIFE article on Joan Leslie. In: books.google.se . Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ Newspaper article from 1941. In: fultonhistory.com . Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ Interview with Joan Leslie. In: westernclippings.com . Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ American's Greatest Screen Legends. In: afi.com , American Film Institute . Accessed October 15, 2015 (PDF; 130 kB, English).
  5. ^ Joan Leslie Caldwell - Obituary. In: legacy.com. Los Angeles Times , October 15, 2015, accessed October 15, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Leslie, Joan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leslie Caldwell, Joan (full name); Brodel, Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 2015
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States