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Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 - December 25,
1979) was an United States|American actor|actress.
Born into a vaudeville family in New York City,
Blondell was a sexy, wisecracking, blonde
pre-Production Code|Hays Code staple of Warner
Brothers who appeared in more than 100 film|movies
and television productions.  She was one of the
WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931.

Her father, known as Eddie Joan Blondell, was a
vaudeville comedian who was one of the original
Katzenjammer Kids. Her younger sister, Gloria
Blondell (1910-1986), was also an actress.

The daughter of travelling showpeople, Blondell
had seen much of the world by the time the family
settled in Dallas, Texas while she was a teenager.
 She won a local beauty contest and travelled to
New York, New York|New York to become an actress. 
 She soon moved to Hollywood where she was placed
under contract by Warner Brothers Studios, making
her film debut in 1930.  During the 1930s she
would embody the depression era gold-digger, and
with her huge eyes, blonde hair and wise cracking
personality, became a crowd favourite.  She
appeared in more Warner Brothers films than any
other actress, and referred to herself as
"Warner's workhorse".  The popularity of her films
made a great contribution to the studio's
profitability. 

Blondell was paired with James Cagney in such
films as The Public Enemy (1931), and was one half
of the gold-digging duo (with Glenda Farrell) in
nine films. During the Great Depression, Blondell
was one of the highest paid individuals in the
United States.  Her stirring rendition of Remember
My Forgotten Man in the Busby Berkeley production
of Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), in which she
co-starred with Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers,
became an anthem for the frustrations of the
unemployed and President of the United
States|President Herbert Hoover's failed economic
policies.

By the end of the decade she had made nearly 50
films.   Continuing to work regularly for the rest
of her life, Blondell was well received in her
later films, and received an Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in
The Painted Veil (1951).  She also appeared in A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Desk Set (1957) and
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter|Will Success Spoil
Rock Hunter? (1957).  She was widely seen in two
films released not long before her death, Grease
(1978) and The Champ (1979).  

She was married first in 1932 to the
cinematographer George S. Barnes (1892-1953); they
divorced in 1936.   Her second husband, married on
September 19, 1936, was the actor, film
director|director, and singer Dick Powell; they
were divorced on July 14, 1944, and had two
children, Ellen Powell and Norman S. Powell (who
became an actor, producer, and director). She
married as her third husband, in 1947, the
producer Michael Todd, who divorced her in 1950.

She died of leukemia in Santa Monica, California
and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Joan Blondell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at
6309 Hollywood Boulevard. 

==External link==
*http://www.classicactresses.com/joanb.html Joan
Blondell at Classic Actresses
*imdb name|id=0000951|name=Joan Blondell