Joan Fontaine

Joan De Beauvoir De Havilland was later known as Joan Fontaine. She was born on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo. Walter Augustus De Havilland, her father, was an English Professor and served at the Imperial University, Tokyo. Mrs. Lillian Augustus, her mother, took drama classes in London and became a stage Actress. Later she gave up acting and became a wife and a mother for two daughters. Joan Fontaine had an elder sister named Olivia De Havilland.

Since their parents were divorced, Joan’s name had her mother’s family name tagged along, which then was changed to ‘Joan Fontaine’. When Miss. Fontaine was diagnosed with Anemia with Streptococcal infection her mother sent her elder sister to States. After some gap, they settled in California. It showed dramatic improvement on Joan’s health. Joan educated her high school from Los Gatos High School, and she learned diction with her elder sister. She lived with her father for some time and then she graduated on 1935.

Joan Fontaine, beginning her acting by giving a stage debut, ‘Call It a Day’ (1935) by the West Cost Productions. It was her direct ticket to sign the contract with RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum), which was drama through radio. It was titled as ‘No More Ladies’ (1935) where she did a small role. As the contract continued, she did ‘A Million To One’ and ‘Quality Street’ in the year of 1937. However, the contract could not be renewed.

After some tough moments, Fontaine was auditioned for ‘Rebecca’ (1940) which was a novel to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She passed the test and made it to screens. For this movie, she was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ for ‘Academy Award’ and ‘NYFCC Award’, but she did not get them. ‘Suspicion’ (1941), directed by the same director won her the awards that she missed last year. Again for ‘The Constant Nymph’ (1943), she was nominated for ‘Academy Award’ but did not earn them. Her works include, ‘Born to be Bad’ (1950), ‘Darling, How Could You’ (1951). ‘Ivanhoe’ (1952), ‘Flight to Tangler’ (1952), ‘Island In the Sun’ (1957), ‘A Certain Smile’ (1958), and much more.
 Fontaine was married four times, but she lived with none. She had a biological child of William Dozier, who was her third husband and had a daughter named Deborah Leslie. After her fourth divorce, she adopted a child of a caretaker, Martita, a Peruvian girl. Joan promised to their parents that when she turned sixteen, she will send her back here, but Martita refused and ran away from them. This incident collapsed her; she decided to take a break from acting. So she retired and left to her estate.

Joan Fontaine’s autobiography titled as ‘No Bed of Roses’ was released at 1978. She breathed her last minutes on December 15, 2013. Obituary report says that it was a natural death. Her sister Olivia Havilland was sad and upset when she heard about her sister’s cremation.