Joan Fontaine
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (22 October 1917 − 15 December 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress. Fontaine began her career on the stage in 1935 and signed a contract with RKO Pictures that same year.
In 1941, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) making Fontaine the only actor to ever win an Academy Award in a film directed by Hitchcock. Fontaine and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are the only set of siblings to have won lead acting Academy Awards. During the 1940s to the 1990s, Fontaine continued her career in roles on the stage and in radio, television and film. She released her autobiography, No Bed of Roses, in 1978. After a career spanning over fifty years, Fontaine made her last on-screen appearance in 1994.
Born in Japan to British parents, the sisters moved to California in 1919. Fontaine lived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where she owned a home, Villa Fontana. It was there that she died of natural causes at the age of 96 in 2013.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1935 | No More Ladies | Caroline 'Carrie' Rumsey | Credited as Joan Burfield |
1937 | A Million to One | Joan Stevens | |
Quality Street | Charlotte Parratt | Uncredited | |
The Man Who Found Himself | Nurse Doris King | ||
You Can't Beat Love | Trudy Olson | ||
Music for Madame | Jean Clemens | ||
A Damsel in Distress | Lady Alyce Marshmorton | ||
1938 | Maid's Night Out | Sheila Harrison | |
Blond Cheat | Juliette 'Julie' Evans | ||
Sky Giant | Meg Lawrence | ||
The Duke of West Point | Ann Porter | ||
1939 | Gunga Din | Emmy | |
Man of Conquest | Eliza Allen | ||
The Women | Mrs. John Day (Peggy) | ||
1940 | Rebecca | The second Mrs. de Winter | New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (3rd place) Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actress |
1941 | Suspicion | Lina | Academy Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress |
1942 | This Above All | Prudence Cathaway | |
1943 | The Constant Nymph | Tessa Sanger | Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actress |
Jane Eyre | Jane Eyre (as an adult) | ||
1944 | Frenchman's Creek | Dona St. Columb | |
1945 | The Affairs of Susan | Susan Darell | |
1946 | From This Day Forward | Susan Cummings | |
1947 | Ivy | Ivy | |
1948 | Letter from an Unknown Woman | Lisa Berndle | |
The Emperor Waltz | Countess Johanna Augusta Franziska | ||
You Gotta Stay Happy | Dee Dee Dillwood | ||
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands | Jane Wharton | ||
1950 | September Affair | Marianne 'Manina' Stuart | |
Born to Be Bad | Christabel Caine Carey | ||
1951 | Darling, How Could You! | Alice Grey | |
1952 | Something to Live For | Jenny Carey | |
Othello | Page | Uncredited | |
Ivanhoe | Rowena | ||
1953 | Decameron Nights | Fiametta/Bartolomea/Ginevra/Isabella | |
Flight to Tangier | Susan Lane | ||
The Bigamist | Eve Graham | ||
1954 | Casanova's Big Night | Francesca Bruni | Alternative title: Mr. Casanova |
1956 | Serenade | Kendall Hale | |
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt | Susan Spencer | ||
1957 | Island in the Sun | Mavis Norman | |
Until They Sail | Annelise | ||
1958 | A Certain Smile | Françoise Ferrand | |
1961 | Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Dr. Susan Hiller | |
1962 | Tender Is the Night | Baby Warren | |
1966 | The Witches | Gwen Mayfield | Alternative title: The Devil's Own |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1953-1954 | Four Star Playhouse | Trudy | episode: "Trudy" episode: "The Girl on the Park Bench" |
1956 | The Ford Television Theatre | Julie | episode: "Your Other Love" |
1956 | The 20th Century Fox Hour | Lynne Abbott | episode: "Stranger In the Night" |
1956-1957 | The Joseph Cotten Show | Adrienne | episode: "Fatal Charm" episode: "The De Santre Story" |
1956-1930 | General Electric Theater | Linda Stacey Judith Laurel Chapman Melanie Langdon Countess Irene Forelli | episode: "A Possibility of Oil" episode: "The Story of Judith" episode: "At Miss Minner's" episode: "The Victorian Chaise Lounge" episode: "In Summer Promise" |
1959 | Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse | Margaret Lewis | episode: "Perilous" |
1960 | Startime | Julie Forbes | episode: "Closed Set" |
1960 | Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond | Ellen Grayson | episode: "The Visitor" |
1961 | The Light That Failed | Hostess | TV movie |
1961 | Checkmate | Karen Lawson | episode: "Voyage Into Fear" |
1962 | The Dick Powell Show | Valerie Baumer | episode: "The Clocks" |
1963 | Wagon Train | Naomi Kaylor | episode: "The Naomi Kaylor Story" |
1963 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Alice Pemberton | episode: "The Paragon" |
1965 | The Bing Crosby Show | Mrs. Taylor | episode: "Operation Man Save" |
1975 | Cannon | Thelma Cain | episode: "The Star" |
1978 | The Users | Grace St. George | |
1980 | Ryan's Hope | Paige Williams | 5 episodes Nominated - Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Guest/Cameo Appearance in a Daytime Drama Series |
1981 | The Love Boat | Jennifer Langley | episode: "Chef's Special/Beginning Anew/Kleinschmidt" |
1983 | Bare Essence | Laura | episode: "Hour Four" episode: "Hour Five" |
1986 | Crossings | Alexandra Markham | |
1986 | Hotel | Ruth Easton | episode: "Harassed" |
1986 | Dark Mansions | Margaret Drake | TV film |
1994 | Good King Wenceslas | Queen Ludmilla | TV film |