Joan Crawford’s Offscreen Life Was Far Wilder [Read more]

Joan Crawford was the most electric actress of her generation, but that genius came with an infamous price.
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Spiteful Facts About Joan Crawford, The Hollywood Heiress
Mar 12
PEOPLE
Henry Gomes
Joan Crawford’s Life Was Even More Scandalous Than Her Movies
Joan Crawford might have been one of the most electric actresses of her generation, but that genius came with an infamous price. From her bitter feud with fellow screen legend Bette Davis to the scandals erupting just behind her bedroom door, Crawford’s risque stardom and controversial life are complex, tragic, and forever tarnished.
Hurrell, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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1. Her Name Was Completely Different
Joan Crawford was born a Southern belle in San Antonio, Texas, but her life was nothing like the glamorous romp we know it as today. The star’s real birth name was the far more modest "Lucille Fay LeSueur," and her parents Thomas and Anna struggled to make ends meet for their young family. Before long, the young girl would know immense tragedy.
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2. She Suffered an Early Tragedy
When Crawford was just a 10-month-old baby, her father dealt her a heartbreaking blow. Thomas abandoned his family entirely, moving to a different city and leaving Crawford’s mother scrambling. She eventually re-married opera house manager Henry J. Cassin, but the union would be both a minor blessing...and a terrible curse.
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3. She Endured a Horrific Act
Although Cassin’s profession exposed Crawford to legendary performers like ballet dancer Anna Pavlova , it also exposed her to far darker things. Even though she believed Cassin was her biological father for a long while, the older man began mistreating her when she was just 11 years old. Sadly, the secret would haunt her for the rest of her life.
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4. She Had a Teenage Romance
Desperate to get out from under her family horror story, Crawford leapt into the first romance she could get her hands on. While at school in Rockingham Academy, the teenager started a serious tryst with Ray Sterling, a trumpet player who tried to push her academic ambitions. By all accounts, it was a healthy relationship…which is probably why it didn’t last.
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5. She Made a Huge Sacrifice
In 1922, Crawford gave up entirely on academics and Ray Sterling, and instead turned toward something much shinier: Stardom. That year, she hastily dropped out of college and started dancing in a series of choruses across America. Somehow, it worked, and she started getting small parts in Hollywood movies. There was just one big problem.
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6. Hollywood Scorned Her
Hollywood isn’t exactly know for its tender loving care, but it was absolutely vicious to the young girl. She was still getting credited as “Lucille LuSuer” in her first films, but producers detested the name, with MGM publicity executive Pete Smith even saying it reminded him of a sewer. Instead, Smith came up with a legendary plan.
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7. She Hated Her Name
Smith put out a “Name the Star” contest in the paper, where readers chose the up and coming starlet’s new stage name. Their first choice? Not “Joan Crawford". The name “Joan Arden” initially won, until the studio realized there was already a working actress with that moniker. Crawford was just a backup last name—and the actress always despised it.
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8. She Played a Shameful Part
Crawford was thrilled when she got her first film role, but it was full of embarrassment. When she nabbed a part in 1925’s Lady of the Night , Crawford was actually a glorified extra, and spent her time on set acting as a body double for MGM’s most popular star, Norma Shearer. It was enough to make anyone jealous, and Joan Crawford wasn’t just anyone…
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9. She Made a Powerful Nemesis
Crawford has one of the most spiteful reputations in Hollywood history, and her competitive behavior started very early. She considered Shearer her professional nemesis, especially since Shearer was married to a studio head and got the best parts. As Crawford once sniped, “How can I compete with Norma? She sleeps with the boss!” Well, it wasn’t long before Joan learned from the best…
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10. She Slept Her Way to the Top
Soon enough—at least if the whispers are to be believed—Crawford had no qualms using the casting couch as a bedroom, snagging some of her biggest roles through seduction. One such conquest, the married director Vincent Sherman, said Crawford had “a masculine approach” to bedroom relations. As for Sherman's wife? When she found out, she only said, “I guess it’s too much to ask of any man that he turn down the opportunity to sleep with Joan Crawford".
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11. She Went to Extreme Lengths for Stardom
Crawford’s competitiveness didn’t end with Shearer. When she became unhappy with how MGM was marketing her, her response was shameless. She started on a self-promotion tear, attending dance competitions all around Hollywood to get her name out there. As one screenwriter put it, “Joan Crawford became a star because Joan Crawford decided to become a star". And her big break was right around the corner.
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12. She Had a Big Break
In 1928, poor little Lucille LuSuer became Joan Crawford, Hollywood starlet. That year, Crawford starred as a flapper in Our Dancing Daughters , and her performance put her on the map as the next “It” girl after big-time starlet Clara Bow . Yet the young actress was about to find out that with big-time fame came big-time scandal.
Our Dancing Daughters (1928), MGM
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13. She Married a Teenage Boy
Crawford got into her first serious Hollywood relationship in 1929—and it was a doozy. That year, she met and then quickly married Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. the heir of Old Hollywood power couple Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford . Racily enough, Fairbanks was only 19 years old, while Crawford was about four years older. But that was just the beginning of the scandal.
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14. She Received a Cruel Snub
Crawford’s new in-laws utterly despised her, and they made her feel it in cruel ways. Pickford and Fairbanks, Sr. had a famous estate they nicknamed PickFair, but they refused to invite the newlyweds to the sprawling property until eight months after the wedding. And when Crawford finally did step into PickFair’s hallowed halls, she found a carefully laid trap.
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15. She Had a Monster-in-Law
Crawford never learned how to play well with others, and Mary Pickford was no exception. Even though Joan repaired her relationship with the man of the house, she and Mary continued to despise each other. If Crawford was ever left alone with the elder actress, Pickford would often just “retire to her rooms,” AKA abandon her.
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16. She Was Obsessive
No one wanted stardom more than Joan Crawford, and no one worked so hard to keep it. In order to tame her Southwestern accent, Crawford read books and magazines aloud to herself for hours on end, repeating words endlessly until she got the pronunciation ri…

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