The Joan Crawford filmography lists the film appearances of American actress Joan Crawford , who starred in numerous feature films throughout a lengthy career that spanned nearly five decades.
She made her film debut in Lady of the Night (1925), as a body double for film star Norma Shearer. She appeared in several other films, before she made her major breakthrough playing Lon Chaney's love interest in the 1927 horror film The Unknown . Her major success in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) made her a popular flapper of the late 1920s. Her first sound film, Untamed (1929), was a critical and box office success.
Crawford would become a highly popular actress throughout the 1930s, as a leading lady for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She starred in a series of "rags-to-riches" films that were extremely popular during the Depression-era, most especially with women. Her popularity rivaled fellow MGM actresses, including Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, and Jean Harlow. She appeared in eight movies with Clark Gable, including romantic drama Possessed (1931), musical film Dancing Lady (1933), romantic comedy Love on the Run (1936), and romantic drama Strange Cargo (1940), among others. In 1937, she was proclaimed the first "Queen of the Movies" by Life magazine, but her popularity soon waned. After her films The Bride Wore Red (1937) and Mannequin (1938) proved to be expensive failures, in May 1938, Crawford – along with Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Francis, and many others – was labeled "box office poison"; an actor whose "box office draw is nil".
Crawford managed to make a comeback in the comedy The Women (1939), opposite an all-star female-only cast. On July 1, 1943, Crawford was released from Louis B. Mayer, due to creative differences, and signed an exclusive contract with Warner Brothers, where she became a rival of Bette Davis. After a slow start with the studio, she received critical and commercial acclaim for her performance in the drama Mildred Pierce (1945). The film earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. From 1946 to 1952, Crawford appeared in a series of critical and box office successes, including the musical drama Humoresque (1946), film noirs Possessed (1947, for which she received a second Academy Award nomination) and Flamingo Road (1949), drama The Damned Don't Cry (1950), and romantic comedy Goodbye, My Fancy (1951), among others. She received a third – and final – Academy Award nomination for her performance in the thriller Sudden Fear (1952).
In 1953, Crawford starred in the musical Torch Song , her final film role for MGM. Her next film, Johnny Guitar (1954), although not originally a hit, has become considered a classic. During the latter half of the 1950s, Crawford starred in a series of B-movies, including romantic dramas Female on the Beach (1955) and Autumn Leaves (1956). In 1962, Crawford was teamed with Bette Davis, in a film adaptation of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). The thriller film was a box office hit, and briefly revived Crawford's career. Her final film performance was in the British science fiction film, Trog (1970).
‡ denotes lost film
Year | Title | Role | Director | Studio |
---|---|---|---|---|
1925 | MGM Studio Tour | Herself [2] | – | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
1925 | Miss MGM | Miss MGM [1] | – | |
1930 | Hollywood Snapshots #11 | Herself | Ralph Staub | Columbia |
1931 | The Slippery Pearls | Herself | William C. McGann | Paramount |
1932 | Screen Snapshots | Herself | Ralph Staub | Columbia |
1947 | The Jimmy Fund | Herself | – | |
1958 | Hollywood Mothers and Fathers | Herself | – | |
1972 | A Very Special Child | Narrator | – | American Cancer Society |
See also: Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll
Year | Title | Role | Director | Studio |
---|---|---|---|---|
1964 | Four Days in November | Herself | Mel Stuart | United Artists |
MGM's Big Parade of Comedy [5] | Herself [6] | Robert Youngson | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
1974 | That's Entertainment! | Janie Barlow ( Dancing Lady ) [6] | Jack Haley, Jr. | |
1984 | Terror in the Aisles | Blanche Hudson ( What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ) [6] | Andrew J. Kuehn | Universal |
1985 | That's Dancing! | Herself [6] | Jack Haley, Jr. | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
1994 | That's Entertainment! III | Jenny Stewart ( Torch Song ) [6] | Bud Friedgen, Michael J. Sheridan |
Year | Title | Role | Director | Studio |
---|---|---|---|---|
1929 | Tide of Empire | Josephita (replaced by Renée Adorée) | Allan Dwan | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
1930 | Great Day | Susie Totheridge | Harry Beaumont | |
The March of Time | Herself | Charles Reisner | ||
1964 | Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte | Miriam Deering (replaced by Olivia de Havilland due to illness) | Robert Aldrich | 20th Century Fox |
Year | Title | Role | Director | Episodes and notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1953 | The Revlon Mirror Theater | Margaret Hughes | Rod Amateau | "Because I Love Him" |
1954 | General Electric Theater | Mary Andrews | Rod Amateau | "The Road to Edinburgh" |
1958 | General Electric Theater | Ruth Marshall | Herschel Daugherty | "Strange Witness" |
1959 | The Joan Crawford Show [7] | Susan Conrad | Dick Powell | "Woman on the Run" (pilot) |
General Electric Theater | Ann Howard | Herschel Daugherty | "And One Was Loyal" | |
Zane Grey Theatre | Stella Faring | Don Medford | "Rebel Range" | |
1961 | Zane Grey Theatre | Sarah and Melanie Hobbes | Lewis Allen | "One Must Die" |
The DuPont Show of the Week | Hostess | James Elson | "The Ziegfeld Touch" | |
1963 | Route 66 | Morgan Matheson Harper | Philip Leacock | "Same Picture, Different Frame" |
1964 | Della [8] | Della Chappell | Robert Gist | TV movie |
1967 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | Amanda True | Barry Shear | "The Five Daughters Affair: Part 1" [9] |
Easter Island | Narrator (voice) | José Gómez-Sicre | TV documentary | |
1968 | The Lucy Show | Herself (guest star) | Jack Donohue | "Lucy and the Lost Star" |
The Secret Storm | Joan Borman Kane #2 [10] | Gloria Monty | Daytime serial (5 episodes) | |
1969 | Garbo | Hostess / Narrator | Fred Burnley | TV documentary |
Night Gallery [11] | Claudia Menlo | Steven Spielberg | TV movie (segment: "Eyes") | |
1970 | The Virginian | Stephanie White | Robert Gist | "Nightmare" |
The Tim Conway Show | Herself (cameo) | Alan Rafkin | "To Cuba with Love" | |
Journey to the Unknown [12] | Hostess | Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Don Chaffey | TV movie | |
The Tim Conway Comedy Hour | Herself (guest star) | Bill Hobin | "Episode #1.3" | |
1971 | Journey to Murder [12] | Hostess | Gerry O'Hara, John Gibson | TV movie |
1972 | The Sixth Sense | Joan Fairchild | John Newland | "Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death" |
Year | Award | Category | Title / Honor | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1945 | National Board of Review Awards | Best Actress | Mildred Pierce | Won |
1946 | Academy Awards | Won | ||
New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Nominated | |||
1948 | Academy Awards | Possessed | Nominated | |
1953 | Sudden Fear | Nominated | ||
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress – Drama | Nominated | ||
Laurel Awards | Best Dramatic Performance, Female | Won | ||
1954 | Top Female Musical Performance | Torch Song | Won | |
1960 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Star of Motion Picture | Star at 1752 Vine Street | Honored |
1963 | BAFTA Film Awards | Best Foreign Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Nominated |
1970 | Golden Globe Awards | Cecil B. DeMille Award | Outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment | Honored |
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