Joan Payson (1903 - 1975)

Joan Payson was born in New York City, the daughter of Payne Whitney and Helen Julia Hay. Her brother was John Hay Whitney. She inherited a trust fund from her grandfather, William C. Whitney and on her father’s death in 1927, she received a large part of the family fortune. She attended Miss Chapin’s School, […]

Joan Rice (1930 - 1997)

Joan Rice (3 February 1930 – 1 January 1997) was a British film actress. One of four sisters from a broken home, she spent eight years in a convent orphanage in Nottingham. Upon arriving in London she first took a job as a waitress. After being crowned “Miss Nippy” in an in-house beauty contest, she was […]

Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014)

Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York in 1933. She was the younger daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman; January 6, 1906 – October 1975) and Meyer C. Molinsky (December 7, 1900 – January 1985). Her elder sister, Mrs. Barbara Waxler, died on June 3, 2013, aged 82. Rivers was […]

Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014)

Joan Rivers Rivers was a member of the Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El in New York and said she “love[d] Israel.” Rivers’ first marriage was in 1955 to James Sanger, the son of a Bond Clothing Stores merchandise manager. The marriage lasted six months and was annulled on the basis that Sanger did not want children […]

Joan Roberts (1917 - 2012)

Actress. She will be best remembered for her origination of the part of Laurey in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s long-running Broadway production of “Oklahoma!” (1943 to 1948). Her acting roots professionally began at the age of five with a part in the “Our Gang” film series. Her association with Rodgers and Hammerstein began with the musical […]

Joan Sebastian (1951 - 2015)

Joan Sebastian was born in the rural town of Juliantla in Guerrero, and began composing at the age of seven. His mother had enrolled him to a school near Guanajuato when he was eight years old, and later returned to his hometown three years later.  At age fourteen, his mother sent him away to a […]

Joan Sims (1930 - 2001)

Sims was born in 1930, the daughter of John Henry Simms (1888-1964), station master of Laindon railway station in Laindon, Essex, and his wife Gladys Marie Sims, née Ladbrook (1896-1981). Sims’ early interest in being an actress came from living at the railway station. She would often put on performances for waiting passengers. She decided […]

Joan Taylor (1929 - 2012)

Joan Taylor Her mother was a former vaudeville singer and dancer, her father was employed as a Hollywood prop-man. He later operated a cinema theater in the Northern Chicago-suburb of Lake Forest, where Rose was both exposed to and enthralled by motion pictures which shaped her future life. Initially she dreamed of becoming a dancer […]

Joan Tetzel (1921 - 1977)

Joan Tetzel played in When a Girl Marries and Woman of Courage, both on CBS. Tetzel is noted for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), where she played “Judy Flaquer”, the daughter of the solicitor played by Charles Coburn in the film. In the movie, she is the confidante and best friend of […]

Joan Winters (1909 - 1933)

Joan Winters appeared on Broadway in 1930 as Sue in the drama Bad Girl. She left for Europe on April 13, 1932 and planned to return to New York City in time to celebrate her birthday on December 8, 1933. According to a UPI wire report from November 4, 1933, Winters’s corpse was discovered together with […]

JoAnn Dean Killingsworth (1923 - 2015)

American Actress and Entertainer. Killingsworth moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1931, where they opened a canteen that later became a full-fledged restaurant in Hollywood. The restaurant’s success enabled the family to put her through dancing lessons. She left home at 15 to join a skating troupe and would later go on to […]

Joanna Cook Moore (1934 - 1997)

Actress. She specialized in playing wily females in such films as “Walk on the Wild Side” (1962), “Son of Flubber” (1963), and Orson Welles’ “A Touch of Evil.” She is best remembered as the benevolent girlfriend of Sheriff Andy Taylor in the early TV episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show.” At the peak of her […]

Joanna Lee (1931 - 2003)

Actress. She is best remembered fo her roles in the 1950s Sci-Fi films, “The Brain Eaters” (1959), as ‘Alice Summers,’ and “Plan 9 From Outer Space” (1959), as ‘Tanna.’ She also made guest appearances on the television shows, “Leave It To Beaver,” “On Trail,” “The 20th Century Fox Hour,’ “The Donna Reed Show,” and “Death […]

Joanne Borgella (1982 - 2014)

Joanne Borgella Joanne Borgella (May 29, 1982 – October 18, 2014) was an American singer and model. She was signed to Wilhelmina Models in New York City, Miami and LA. She was the first winner of Mo’Nique’s Fat Chance pageant as “Miss F.A.T.” in 2005 and a top 24 contestant on the seventh season of […]

Joanne Copeland Carson (1931 - 2015)

Actress, Model and Television Host. Born Joanne Copeland, she went on to become Johnny Carson’s second wife. In the mid-1950s, she was a Pan Am stewardess and helped calm a passenger in first class, who turned out to be Howard Hughes. A few weeks later, she got a call from Hughes’ RKO studio offering her […]

Joanne Dru (1922 - 1996)

Born as Joan Letitia LaCock in Logan, West Virginia, Joanne Dru came to New York City in 1940 at the age of eighteen. After finding employment as a model, she was chosen by Al Jolson to appear in the cast of his Broadway show Hold On to Your Hats. When she moved to Hollywood, she […]

Joaquín Agrasot Juan (1836 - 1919)

Artist. Born in Orihuela, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain, at young age, he moved to Valencia with his parents. Soon after he began his career as painter, and he wqs bestowed his first award in 1860 with his works “La Educación de la Virgen,” “El Sacrifico de Isaac” and “Retrato de Don Juan Alfonso de Albuquerque, […]

Joaquin Andujar (1952 - 2015)

Major League Baseball Player. For thirteen seasons (1976 to 1988), he was a pitcher with the Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland Athletics. Signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent in 1969, he was acquired by the Astros (via a trade) prior to the 1976 season. He secured a spot within […]

Joaquín Cordero (1922 - 2013)

Joaquín Cordero (Spanish pronunciation: [xoakin kordero];(August 16, 1922 – February 19, 2013) was a Mexican actor of the cinema, theatre and telenovelas. Shortly after his birth, Cordero’s family moved to Mexico City, and in the following years he studied in a seminary and even considered becoming a priest, but eventually he decided to pursue a law […]

Joaquín Pardavé (1900 - 1955)

At age 18, Joaquin Pardavé followed in the footsteps of his parents. He began his acting career in the operetta Los sobrinos del capitán Grant, in the company of his uncle Carlos Pardavé, when he asked to meet an actor. Later he joined the company of Jose Campillo, where he met and teamed for 12 […]

Jobyna Howland (1880 - 1936)

American stage and motion picture actress of the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. Sister of actor Olin Howlin. Married to writer Arthur Stringer. (bio by: A.J. Marik)  Family links:  Parents:  Joby A. Howland (1849 – 1939)  Mary Ann Bunting Howland (1854 – 1951)  Sibling:  Jobyna Howland (1880 – 1936)  Olin Howlin (1886 – 1959)* *Calculated relationship

Jobyna Ralston (1899 - 1967)

Jobyna Ralston was born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland. Ralston’s mother, a portrait photographer, carefully groomed her daughter for a show business career. At the age of nine she gave her first stage performance as Cinderella during the grand […]

Jocelyn Brando (1919 - 2005)

Jocelyn Brando, the older sister of Marlon Brando, was born in San Francisco, California, to Marlon Brando, Sr., and Dorothy Julia Pennebaker Brando. Jocelyn and Marlon Brando and their sister Frances grew up mostly in the Midwest—in Omaha, Nebraska, Evanston and Libertyville, Illinois, though the family also spent time in California. The bane of the […]

Jock Mahoney (1919 - 1989)

Jock Mahoney was born in Chicago, Illinois, but reared in Davenport, Iowa. He entered the University of Iowa in Iowa City but dropped out to enlist in the United States Marine Corps when World War II began. He served as a pilot, flight instructor and war correspondent. After his discharge from the Marine Corps he moved to […]

Jody Gilbert (1916 - 1979)

Actress. She appeared as ‘Tiny the Waitress’ (she was actually quite heavy-set) in the 1941 comedy classic “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.” Other appearances include “Ninotchka” (1939), “Hellzapoppin’” (1941), “Sargeant York” (1941), “Christmas in Connecticut” (1945), “Strange Confession” (1945), “The Paleface” (1948), “Life with Luigi” (1952), and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” […]

Jody McCrea (1934 - 2009)

Jody McCrea served in the United States Army, Special Services. He later briefly hosted Country Style, USA, an Army-produced recruiting television program filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring various country entertainers. He began acting on the 1959–1960 television series Wichita Town with his father. He went on to star in films (mainly westerns), including the World […]

Jody Williams (1935 - 2018)

Jody Williams Jody Williams, a famed Chicago blues guitarist and Blues Hall of Fame member, has died at the age of 83. Williams succumbed to cancer at the at the Munster Med Inn in Munster, Indiana Saturday night, according to a statement from Alligator Records. Jody Williams—known for a six-string style that evoked sophisticated, jazzy West […]

Joe Adcock (1927 - 1999)

Joe Adcock (October 30, 1927 – May 3, 1999) was a major league baseball player who also managed in the Major and Minor Leagues. He was best known as a first baseman and right-handed slugger with the powerful Milwaukee Braves teams of the 1950s, whose career included numerous home run feats. A sure-handed defensive player, […]

Joe Adonis (1902 - 1971)

Joe Adonis Organized Crime Figure. Born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano, Italy, near Naples, to Michele and Maria Doto. In 1909, Joe and his family entered the United States at New York City. As a young man, Joe supported himself by stealing and picking pockets. While working on the streets, Joe […]

Joe Alaskey (1952 - 2016)

Joe Alaskey was occasionally seen onscreen impersonating Jackie Gleason, with whom he shared a physical resemblance. In the 1980s, Gleason personally chose Alaskey to re-record selected dialogue from the “lost episodes” of The Honeymooners found in Gleason’s private collection. After Gleason died, he watched the project get shelved. In 1985, Alaskey provided various voices for […]