Joan Crawford was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. In late 1924, Crawford was discovered performing in The Winter Garden in New York by an MGM talent scout. She was soon signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and cast as a co-star in a series of successful silent films, where she learned her acting craft from established stars such as Lon Chaney and the Barrymores. Crawford became a bona fide star in 1928, when she was cast as the lead in the critically and commercially successful film Our Dancing Daughters. She was subsequently cast as the leading actress in several other successful films. By the mid 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo, and Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States. Based on the critical and commercial success of Possessed Crawford became somewhat typecast as hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. However, despite her pleas for more variating roles to showcase her acting talent, MGM refused to change up Crawford's screen persona, and by the late 1930s distributors complained that her films were losing money. This resulted in Crawford asking MGM to be released from her contract in 1943, and she immediately signed with Warner Bros. determined to find better, and more challenging, roles.
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was known for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was placed second on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
Natalie Wood was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles.
Dangerous is a 1935 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Bette Davis in her first Oscar-winning role. The screenplay by Laird Doyle is based on his story Hard Luck Dame.
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress.
Mommie Dearest is a memoir and exposé written by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of Academy Award winning actress Joan Crawford. Published in 1978, it attracted much controversy for its portrayal of Joan Crawford as a cruel, unbalanced, and alcoholic mother, with Crawford's other twin daughters, household staff, and family friends denouncing it as sensationalized fiction. It was turned into a 1981 film of the same title starring Faye Dunaway.
The Whales of August is a 1987 American drama film directed by Lindsay Anderson and starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The story is based on the play of the same title by David Berry.
Sterling Walter Hayden was an American actor, author, sailor, model and Marine. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). He became noted for supporting roles in the 1960s, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
Johnny Guitar is a 1954 American Western film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine and Scott Brady. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures. The screenplay was adapted from a novel of the same name by Roy Chanslor.
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American psychological horror thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead and Mary Astor in her final film role. It follows a middle-aged Southern woman, suspected in the unsolved murder of her lover from decades before, who is plagued by bizarre occurrences after summoning her cousin to help challenge the local government's impending demolition of her home. The screenplay was adapted by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller, from Farrell's unpublished short story "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?"
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological horror thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, from a screenplay by Lukas Heller, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. The film stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and features the major film debut of Victor Buono. It follows an aging former child star tormenting her paraplegic sister, a former film star, in an old Hollywood mansion.
Joan Evans was an American film actress known for Roseanna McCoy, Skirts Ahoy! and co-starred with Audie Murphy in the movie, Column South. She was married to Kirby Weatherly in August 1952.
Natasha Gregson Wagner is an American actress. She is the daughter of film producer Richard Gregson and actress Natalie Wood. She has appeared in films including Lost Highway, Two Girls and a Guy,First Love, Last Rites, Urban Legend, Another Day in Paradise and High Fidelity (2000).
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.
The 35th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1962, were held on April 8, 1963, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, hosted by Frank Sinatra.
Ernest Jacob HallerASC, sometimes known as Ernie J. Haller, was an American cinematographer.
Bordertown is a 1935 American drama film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Paul Muni and Bette Davis. The screenplay by Laird Doyle and Wallace Smith is based on Robert Lord's adaptation of the 1934 novel Border Town by Carroll Graham. The supporting cast features Margaret Lindsay, Eugene Pallette and Robert Barrat. Although the films They Drive by Night (1940) and Blowing Wild (1953) are not specifically remakes of Bordertown, they include many of its plot elements and similar scenes.
The Mystery of Natalie Wood is a two-part 2004 made-for-TV biographical film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Partly based on the biographies Natasha: the Biography of Natalie Wood written by Suzanne Finstad and Natalie & R.J. written by Warren G. Harris, the film chronicles the life and career of actress Natalie Wood from her early childhood in the 1940s until her death in 1981.
Feud is an American docudrama anthology television series created by Ryan Murphy, Jaffe Cohen, and Michael Zam, which premiered on FX on March 5, 2017. Conceived as an anthology series, Feud's first season, Bette and Joan, chronicles the well-documented rivalry between Hollywood actresses Joan Crawford and Bette Davis during and after the production of their psychological horror thriller film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon star as Crawford and Davis, respectively. Judy Davis, Jackie Hoffman, Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci, and Alison Wright feature in supporting roles. Academy Award–winning actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kathy Bates also appear. Critically acclaimed, with major praise for Lange and Sarandon's performances, the first season garnered several accolades. It received 18 nominations at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards and won two, including Outstanding Hairstyling and Makeup (Non-Prosthetic). Bette and Joan also received six Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Television Critics Association Awards nominations.
Katherine Albert was an American screenwriter, playwright, and TV writer.
