Joan Fontaine is a talented theater and film actress. An amazing woman has achieved amazing success in her desire to annoy her sister and prove her superiority.
Joan Fontaine's life has been long and eventful. She always enjoyed success, although she did not meet the standards of Hollywood. But she knew how to brilliantly get used to the role.
Childhood years
The future celebrity was born in 1917 in the capital of Japan, Tokyo. The girl's parents lived in a quarter for foreigners. Lawyer Augustus de Havilland and stage actress Lillian Augusta Ruse already had a daughter, Olivia.
The younger sister competed with her older sister all her life. The girls lived in a very wealthy family. Joan did not differ in strength of health. The child was constantly ill. Therefore, after a divorce in 1919, Lillian and her children moved to the United States.
There her youngest daughter felt much better. At the age of fifteen, the future performer moved to her father in Japan. She spent two years with him. After returning to the States, the girl learned that Olivia had become a famous actress.
The younger sister decided to surpass the older one in everything. The path to the heights of a career The family took the girl's artistic choice very negatively. The mother forbade using her own surname, since the name of Olivia Havilland had already become known.
So the aspiring performer had to take the pseudonym of her mother and become Fontaine. Joan's debut role went to the play "Name This Day". The performance became the starting point of a successful career.
Fontaine's game caught the attention of the film company. The girl was invited to the cinema. Her first works "Girl's Suffering" and "Only Without Ladies" did not bring the performer either awards or fame.
Success
Joan received her American citizenship in 1943. Since then, luck has smiled at her. Fontaine, who unexpectedly came to audition for a minor role in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca", was approved for the main role. The heroine became the girl's first serious success.
The recognition was not easy. Hitchcock immediately noted that Laurence Olivier, who was Joan's partner, did not sympathize with the girl and caused her shyness. The director demanded a bad attitude towards the performer from the entire film crew.
As a result, the main character on the screen seemed timid, frightened and insecure. This is exactly the effect the director was trying to achieve.
Fontaine took part in Hitchcock's next film, Suspicion. The famous Cary Grant became her partner. The tape received several Oscars.
Fontaine herself also received a statuette for Best Actress. Olivia was left behind. She tried to congratulate her sister, but she did not pay attention to the older's motives. Finally, the relationship of the sisters soured after Joan, for no reason, did not come to her mother's funeral.
Communication with Olivia was completely cut off. The heyday of creativity The heyday of the actress's career fell on the forties. She starred in the film projects "Above All", "Jane Eyre", "Letter from a Stranger". Starting in the fifties, the number of jobs began to decrease.
Completion of a film career
But even during the recession, the celebrity performed good roles in the films "Bigamist" and "Beyond Reasonable Doubt." The play "Tea and Sympathy" received a lot of positive reviews. During the Second World War, the already popular actress helped the nurses, supported the soldiers in radio speeches.
The heyday of theatrical activities of a celebrity came in the sixties. Fontaine has taken part in several performances. She played in "Cactus Flower", "Lion in Winter".
The last of the most famous pictures with her was the 1966 tape "Witches" There the teacher became the heroine of the actress. Joan no longer appeared on the screen after the completion of the project. The performer worked on television until 1994.
Her most famous works have been in Dark Mansions, The Good Lion Wenceslas and the TV series Ryan's Hope. Personal life After completing her career, Joan lived in a small town in seclusion, taking care of only her dogs. In 2013, at the age of ninety-six, the famous actress passed away.
Matters of the heart
The star got married more than once. She married actor Brian Ahern in 1939. However, family life did not work out: the newlyweds often quarreled.
They separated in 1945. The following year, the performer formalized a relationship with producer William Dosier. In 1848 they had a child, daughter Deborah Leslie.
In 1949, the couple separated, officially terminating the marriage in 1951. Since 1952, for eight years, family life continued with the writer Collier Young.
And in 1964 he was married to Sports Illustrated editor Alfred Raiat Jr. The relationship ended by 1969.
At the 1951 South American Film Festival, Joan became the unofficial guardian of the Peruvian girl Martita.
The baby's father worked as a watchman on the ruins of the Inca city. The parents entrusted their daughter to the actress, as they hoped for a better life for Martita.
Fontaine promised that the girl would come to her parents after the age of sixteen. The star kept her word. She bought her adopted daughter a ticket to and from Peru. However, she refused the trip and fled.
Her fans are revising the paintings with Joan Fontaine and now fans of the "Golden Age of Hollywood". By nature, the actress was a woman with a strong character. However, thanks to the roles, the image of a gentle and vulnerable girl has forever been entrenched in her. The performer failed to leave him in her entire life, no matter how hard she tried.
