People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Joan Crawford

Born 23 March 1905 in San Antonio, Texas, USA, as Lucille Fay LeSueur.
Died 10 May 1977 in New York, New York, USA, of heart failure.

Daughter of Thomas E. LeSueur and Anna Bell Johnson.
Sister of actor Hal Le Sueur and Daisy McConnell.

Married James Welton, 1923; divorced 1924.
Married actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., 3 June 1929 in New York, New York; divorced, 15 May 1934.
Married actor Franchot Tone, 11 October 1935 in New Jersey; divorced, 11 April 1939.
Adopted daughter, Christina Crawford, born 11 June 1939 (adopted 1940).
Adopted son, Christopher Crawford, born April 1941 (returned to biological mother in 1942).
Married actor Phillip Terry, 21 July 1942 at Hidden Valley Ranch, Ventura County, California, USA;
divorced, 25 April 1946; adopted son, Christopher Terry, born 15 October 1943 (adopted late 1943).
Adopted twin daughters, Cathy Crawford and Cynthia Crawford, born 13 January 1947
in Dyersburg, Tennessee, USA (adopted June 1947).
Married business executive Alfred N. Steele, [?] 10 May 1955 or 14 January 1956? in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA;
until Alfred’s death, 19 April 1959.

Joan Crawford began show business as a dancer, soon signing a motion picture contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation in 1925, with whom she stayed into the 1930s. Her debut film was Pretty Ladies (1925), and she was loaned out to Harry Langdon Corporation to make Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) and also to Cosmopolitan Pictures Corporation in 1928. Crawford was featured early with stars Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Tim McCoy and William Haines (who became a lifelong friend) before her breakout role in Our Dancing Daughters (1928).

References: Website-IMDb, Website-Wikipedia.