Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades.
Fontaine’s Bio from the program:
Born in Tokyo, Japan, in the house which has been until recently occupied by the Swedish Embassy, Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland is of English parentage and a naturalized United States citizen.
At an early age, she, her mother and only sister Olivia settled in northern California, Joan returning to Japan in her teens to attend the American School in Tokyo,
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, the girls’ mother tutored them in dramatics and was insistent that they study. ballet, music and art along with their academic curriculum.
Upon returning to California, Joan studied drama with Max Reinhardt and began her stage career with West Coast productions of Kind Lady, starring May Robson, and Call It a Day. (Miss Fontaine had now adopted her stepfather’s name, not wishing to capitalize upon the one already firmly established with her sister’s flourishing career.) Jesse Lasky attended the Hollywood opening night of the latter play and promptly signed her to a film contract.
Miss Fontaine’s movie career began with such films as Gunga Din, Damsel in Distress with Fred Astaire, and The Women. Not until David Selznick’s Rebecca with Laurence Olivier did she reach star status and was nominated for the Academy Award. Her next film, Suspicion, co-starring Cary Grant, won her the coveted Oscar and she was very promptly nominated again for her sensitive performance of Tessa in The Constant Nymph.
A series of film classics followed, including Jane Eye, This Above All, Frenchman’s Creek, A Letter from an Unknown Woman. Later, she starred in September Affair, Ivanhoe, A Certain Smile, and completed The Devil’s Own in England in 1966. She has made over 45 films.
Miss Fontaine continued with her first love, the theatre, however, and starred on Broadway in Tea and Sympathy, opposite Anthony Perkins in 1951-55. She also has toured nationally and made many stock appearances in such plays as Marriage-Go-Round, Dial “M” for Murder, The Uninvited Guest, and Spider’s Web. Miss Fontaine appeared earlier this year in Private Lives at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago, where she set a new house record. Her radio and tele- vision appearances are countless.
Now making her permanent home in Manhattan, Miss Fontaine travels extensively, having visited over fifty countries to date. She is a golf enthusiast and the possessor of a Hole-In-One trophy, won at Cypress Point. Having been a licensed pilot, she was a member of the winning team of the International Balloon Race held in Rotterdam in 1960. She has ridden to hounds in Ireland and California and is also an ardent fisherman. She is never happier than when fishing for trout on a mountain stream.
Her gentler hobbies include oil painting, needlepoint, and she has attended the Cordon Bleu Cooking School. Of her many tributes, she values the Eleanor Roosevelt Award, given to her for humanitarian contribution in 1966, among her highest.
[Joan Fontaine’s Bio from the 1968 Private Lives Program at Elitch Theatre]
Seasons at the Theatre
- 1967
- 1968
Productions/Roles:
- 1967 – Spider’s Web
- 1968 – Private Lives
Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:
- Won Best Actress Oscar for Suspicion.
- Three Academy Award Nominations for Best Actress: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1942), and The Constant Nymph (1943).
- Event a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 1980 for Outstanding Cameo Appearance in a Daytime Drama Series on Ryan’s Hope.
Elitch Theatre Connections:
- Elitch Theatre Alum, George Brent, did The Affairs of Susan (1945) with Joan Fontaine.
- Fontaine was in Something to Live For with Elitch Theatre alumna, Teresa Wright.
Wikipedia Link:
