Joan Leslie

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Joan Leslie born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel January 26 1925 October 12 2015 was an American actress dancer and vaudevillian who during the Hollywood Golden Age appeared in such films as High Sierra Sergeant York and Yankee Doodle Dandy Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel was born on January 26 1925 in Highland Park Michigan the youngest child of John and Agnes Brodel At 15 Leslie had her first significant role as the crippled girl in High Sierra 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino The same year she played in Sergeant York as Yorks fiancée Leslie had a supporting role in The Male Animal 1942 as Olivia de Havillands younger sister In Yankee Doodle Dandy also 1942 she portrayed George M Cohans girlfriendwife By now Leslie had become a star whose onscreen image was described as sweet innocence without seeming too sugary Leslie was in four motion pictures released during 1943 The Hard Way starring Ida Lupino and Dennis Morgan The Skys the Limit 1943 starring with Fred Astaire the wartime film This Is the Army 1943 with Ronald Reagan and finally Thank Your Lucky Stars During World War II she was a regular volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen where she danced with servicemen and signed hundreds of autographs She was featured with Robert Hutton among many others in the Warner Bros film Hollywood Canteen 1944 In 1946 Leslies career took a dive when she took Warner Brothers to court in order to get released from her contract based on moral and religious grounds because of the parts they kept giving her She wanted more serious and mature roles In 1947 the Catholic Theatre Guild gave Leslie an award because of her consistent refusal to use her talents and art in film productions of objectionable character As a result of this Jack Warner used his influence to blacklist her from other major Hollywood studios From this point on Leslie had a more irregular film career In 1947 she signed a twopicture contract with the poverty row studio EagleLion Films The first one was Repeat Performance 1947 a film noir The other was Northwest Stampede 1948 in which she performed with James Craig In 1952 she signed a shortterm deal with Republic Pictures One of the films she made for Republic was Flight Nurse 1953 Her last film was The Revolt of Mamie Stover 1956 However she continued making sporadic appearances in television shows while her children were at school She retired from acting in 1991 after appearing in the TV film Fire in the Dark Leslie died on October 12 2015 in Los Angeles California She was 90 Her survivors include her two children and one sister Betty On October 8 1960 Joan Leslie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street In 1999 she was one of the 250 actresses nominated for the American Film Institutes selection of the 25 greatest female screen legends to have debuted before 1950 On August 12 2006 she received a Golden Boot Award for her contributions to Western television shows and movies