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People of Note - Obituaries
GenealogyBuff.com - Joan Caulfield, Actress
Posted By: GenealogyBuff.com
Date: Sunday, 4 September 2016, at 7:21 p.m.
System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Joan Caulfield, Actress
June 01, 1922 - June 18, 1991
Born on June 1, 1922, in Orange, New Jersey, Joan was the second of three Caulfield girls: older sister Mary and younger sibling Elizabeth (Betty) completed the family unit. Henry, a successful stockbroker, provided well for his wife and daughters: the girls were enrolled in the best schools; the family vacationed annually at their Allenhurst, New Jersey summer residence. Photos of Joan from this period showcase a round-faced little girl with an unruly mop of dark curly hair. (The recognizable shade of ash blonde was acquired in 1942.) At Miss Beard’s, a local private school, Joan made her stage debut in A Kiss for Cinderella. (The future star attended a succession of exclusive parochial schools before matriculating at Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School.) When Joan wasn’t treading the boards or attending classes in Orange, she could be found strutting the catwalk of a nearby Newark department store. Joan’s idyllic existence ended when Henry suffered a severe financial reversal in the mid 1930s. To seek gainful employment, Mr. Caulfield moved his family to New York City. The fledgling actress quickly adapted to her new situation and continued her theatrical endeavours at the Lincoln School of Teachers College. After graduating in 1940, Miss Caulfield enrolled in Columbia University as an English major. Midway through her freshman year, she joined the Upper East Side’s Morningside (Heights) Players "just for kicks." With Morningside, she managed to secure a few character roles, mostly dotty grandmothers and spinster aunts! (She also painted her fair share of set scenery.) Things changed when she was discovered by Broadway producer George Abbott, who cast her in the lead of Kiss and Tell (1943), a typical piece of Americana that lasted a whopping 480 performances and turned the novice into a hot commodity. She signed a contract with Paramount, making her screen debut in "Miss Susie Slagle's" (1944, released 1946). She then had a costarring role opposite Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in the Irving Berlin musical "Blue Skies" (1946). By the 1950s, her upper middle-class blonde good looks and cultivated manner had been superseded by the more dramatic screen presence of Grace Kelly, her (more acclaimed) successor to the type. Throughout her film career, Caulfield remained active on stage, mostly in stock or touring productions of contemporary comedies. From 1950 to 1960 she was married to producer Frank Ross, who produced and directed her in "The Lady Says No" (1951), and produced "The Rains of Ranchipur" (1955), in which she played second fiddle to Lana Turner; and also Caulfield's live TV comedy series "My Favorite Husband" (1953-55), and "Sally" (1957-58). She married her dentist in 1960. They divorced in 1966. She never remarried. Each marriage produced a son. Joan died of cancer on June 18, 1991, at age 69.
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