Joan Crawford

<p><strong>Joan Crawford</strong> (born <strong>Lucille Fay LeSueur</strong>; March 23, 190?<sup id= "cite_ref-birthyear_1-1" class="reference"><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Crawford#cite_note-birthyear-1">[Note 1]</a></sup> – <span class="avoidwrap">May 10, 1977)</span> was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on <a title="Broadway theatre" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_theatre">Broadway</a>. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by <a title= "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer">Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer</a> in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally known <a title="Flapper" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper">flapper</a> by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues <a title="Norma Shearer" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Shearer">Norma Shearer</a> and <a title="Greta Garbo" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Garbo">Greta Garbo</a>. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by <a title="Great Depression" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression">Depression</a>-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of <a class="mw-redirect" title= "Hollywood, Los Angeles, California" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood,_Los_Angeles,_California">Hollywood</a>'s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison".</p>