After her movie career ended, Crawford continued to work for a couple years into the 1970s, but found preparing to be “Joan Crawford” was becoming too much. She receded from public life and in her last few years alcoholism and illness were sometimes issues. We wrap up our series on Joan Crawford.

With the success of Strait-Jacket, Joan Crawford agreed to another role in Castle’s follow up film, I Saw What You Did. Though her character is killed in the first third of the picture, she got star billing, her usual salary and a chance to be a star again.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was a smash hit and it was followed with numerous offers of work for both Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. However, most of the work was in horror films. Joan Crawford picked up an axe for William Castle’s 1964 classic Strait-Jacket and Crawford saw dollar signs.

Joan Crawford found a way out of debt and a shot at a second – or third – act in Hollywood. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? would become a smash, but working with Bette Davis was the price to pay.

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford met Alfred Steele in the mid 1950s when her career was going downhill. She decided to step away from Hollywood and become the wife of a Pepsi executive. All seemed rosy, but the marriage ended in his death and she found she had crushing debt. The only way out was to…

Joan Crawford died in 1977, but her career died around 1970 with her final film, Trog. Crawford’s body of work on film from 1960 until her death was primarily horror related. The success of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? gave her career a boost, but put her on a course where nearly every film…

With the fall of 2022 marking the 60th anniversary of the release of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the 1962 classic starring Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, this new series of Hollywood’nt – Hollywood Declassified looks back to the film and one of its stars, Joan Crawford. This episode introduces the topic and sets…