Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actor.
Crawford’s career in show business began as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies. Working her way up to Broadway, she caught the attention of the burgeoning film industry and signed on with MGM in 1925. She rose to fame in silent films as a “flapper”(the 1920s version of an edgy or risqué subculture) and successfully transitioned to the talkies.
She starred in a string of box office hits through the 30s, including Grand Hotel (1932), Dancing Lady (1933), and Forsaking All Others (1934). In 1937, Crawford was proclaimed the first "Queen of the Movies" by Life magazine. The same year, her box office earnings started to drop and she was soon dubbed "Box Office Poison." She made a comeback in 1939 with the film, The Women, which famously featured a six-minute technicolor fashion show. She went on to win an Academy Award for her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945), as well as two nominations for Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952).
Joan continued to act, rising to fame again in the cult favorite Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), in which she played an aging paraplegic movie star trapped in a toxic relationship with her toxic sister played by longtime rival Bette Davis. Over the course of her nearly half-century career, Crawford appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows spanning 1925 to 1972.
Crawford was married four times, including to actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Alfred Steele, the CEO of Pepsi-Cola. After his death, she filled Steele's seat on the board of directors from 1959 to 1973.
In addition to her well-publicized marriages, she had numerous affairs with men and women, possibly including director Dorothy Arzner, Barbara Stanwyck, and even arch-rival Bette Davis.
Her daughter Christina discussed Crawford's bisexuality saying,
Of course I was very young. But I understand that, yes. In those days, people didn’t come out of the closet. Everybody knew it, but it wasn’t public information... I think she was bisexual. That’s what I think.