Joan Blondell

Joan Blondell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6309 Hollywood Boulevard. She died of heart failure in New York City in 1999. She died of leukemia in Santa Monica, California and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. She was also a regular panelist on the television game show "To Tell the Truth". She married as her third husband, in 1947, the producer Michael Todd, who divorced her in 1950. Her son, Rob, has gone on to become a noted economist. Powell (who became an actor, producer, and director). She was best known for her performance as Agnes Gooch in Auntie Mame on both Broadway and in the film version (1958), a role for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Her second husband, married on September 19, 1936, was the actor, director, and singer Dick Powell; they were divorced on July 14, 1944, and had two children, Ellen Powell and Norman S. Mary Margaret (Peggy) Cass (May 21, 1924 - March 8, 1999) was an actress and comedienne. Barnes (1892-1953); they divorced in 1936. She was married first in 1932 to the cinematographer George S. She was widely seen in two films released not long before her death, Grease (1978) and The Champ (1979).

She also appeared in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Desk Set (1957) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Continuing to work regularly for the rest of her life, Blondell was well received in her later films, and received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in The Painted Veil (1951). By the end of the decade she had made nearly 50 films. Her stirring rendition of Remember My Forgotten Man in the Busby Berkeley production of Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), in which she co-starred with Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers, became an anthem for the frustrations of the unemployed and President Herbert Hoover's failed economic policies.

Blondell was paired with James Cagney in such films as The Public Enemy (1931), and was one half of the gold-digging duo (with Glenda Farrell) in nine films. During the Great Depression, Blondell was one of the highest paid individuals in the United States. The popularity of her films made a great contribution to the studio's profitability. She appeared in more Warner Brothers films than any other actress, and referred to herself as "Warner's workhorse". During the 1930s she would embody the depression era gold-digger, and with her huge eyes, blonde hair and wise cracking personality, became a crowd favourite.

She soon moved to Hollywood where she was placed under contract by Warner Brothers Studios, making her film debut in 1930. She won a local beauty contest and travelled to New York to become an actress. The daughter of travelling showpeople, Blondell had seen much of the world by the time the family settled in Dallas, Texas while she was a teenager. Her younger sister, Gloria Blondell (1910-1986), was also an actress.

Her father, known as Eddie Joan Blondell, was a vaudeville comedian who was one of the original Katzenjammer Kids. She was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931. Born into a vaudeville family in New York City, Blondell was a sexy, wisecracking, blonde pre-Hays Code staple of Warner Brothers who appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions. Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 - December 25, 1979) was an American actress.