Joan Davis

At 53 years old, Joan Davis physical status not available right now. We will update Joan Davis's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Josephine "Joan" Davis (June 29, 1912 – May 22, 1961) was an American comedic actress whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television.

Remembered best for the 1950s television comedy I Married Joan, Davis had a successful earlier career as a B-movie actress and a leading star of 1940s radio comedy. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, she was the only child of LeRoy Davis and Nina Mae (née Sinks) Davis, who were married in St. Paul on November 23, 1910.

Davis had been a performer since childhood.

She appeared with her husband Si Wills in vaudeville.

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Career

Way Up Thar (1935), Davis' first film, was a short film starring a then-unknown Roy Rogers. Davis, the education company, has been commissioned by Twentieth Century-Fox, to produce feature films. She was tall and lanky, with a humourously speaking voice, and she became known as one of the few female physical comedians of her time. She was perhaps best known for her flawless physical comedy in Hold That Ghost (1941), co-starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

Her pantomime sequence in Beautiful but Broke (1944) was a slapstick construction-site episode. She appeared in Tail Spin (1939) as a supporting actress for the women's Bendix Air Race circuit. She co-starred in Show Business (1944) and If You Knew Susie (1948).

Joan Davis appeared on television on August 28, 1941, and later became a regular on the Rudy Vallee Show four months later. Davis began a string of television programs that established her as a leading figure in radio situation comedy in the 1940s. Davis and Jack Haley, along with Vallee, became the co-hosts of the show when Vallee left for the Coast Guard in 1943. Davis, the owner-operator of The Sealtest Village Store from July 8, 1943 to June 28, 1945, when she left to do Joanie's Tea Room on CBS from September 3, 1945 to June 23, 1947, with a name change. Davis operated a tea shop in the little town of Smallville, Lever Brothers sponsored Swan Soap on behalf of Swan Soap. Verna Felton was the supporting cast member. Harry von Zell was the announcer, and Abe Burrows, the former head writer (and co-creator) of Duffy's Tavern and later a Broadway playwright, was her head writer (and co-creator) of the playwright.

In Joan Davis Time, a CBS Saturday-night program from October 11, 1947 to July 3, 1948, the tea shop setting stayed. The cast included Hans Conried, Mary Jane Croft, Andy Russell, Andy Russell, the Choraliers quintet, and John Rarig and his Orchestra, with Lionel Stander as the tea shop manager. Leave It to Joan ran from July 4 to August 22, 1949, as a summer replacement for Lux Radio Theatre, and then from September 9, 1949, to March 3, 1950. From July 3 to August 28, 1950, she appeared on CBS from July 3 to August 28, 1950. She appeared on Tallulah Bankhead's radio variety show The Big Show (1950–1952). Davis was also a regular on Eddie Cantor's Time to Smile program.

Davis was the star of the unsold pilot Let's Join Joanie, who was born in 1950. The planned series was a television adaptation of Leave It to Joan. Sponsors wanted more of the same when I Love Lucy debuted in October 1951 and became a top-rated television series. I Married Joan premiered in 1952, portraying Davis as the sarcastic wife of a mild-mannered community judge (Jim Backus), who got her husband into wacky situations with or without the help of a younger sister, played by Beverly Wills. Davis was also one of the show's executive producers. I Married Joan did not achieve the fame and adoration of I Love Lucy, but it did have modestly positive reviews during its first two years, with the 1953–1954 season falling outside the top 25. However, by the third year, the ratings were starting to decline, but Davis was also experiencing heart problems. As a result, the series was cancelled in Spring 1955. I Married Joan was one of the first to profit from syndication; it was one of the first series to profit from the opportunity.

I Married Joan was barred from syndication until her estate, including her residuals from the show's syndicated reruns, could be settled in court (an issue complicated by the deaths of all of Davis' siblings in 1963).

Davis, a year after I Married Joan ended its primetime appearances, was approached by ABC to appear in The Joan Davis Show in 1956. Davis was portraying a musical comedy entertainer who had raised a daughter on her own in this series. Davis portrayed her real name as the lead character in her movie. Hope Summers, a veteran actor, was cast as Joan's housekeeper, and Wills was hired to play Joan's daughter, also known as Beverly. Ray Ferrell was portrayed as Joan's grandson Stevie. Joan was introduced to her five-year-old grandson for the first time and was trying to convince Beverly that despite her hectic show-business schedule and her somewhat zany appearance, she was a loving and responsible grandmother. The pilot did not have a run on ABC as a series. It was inactive among Davis' television performances until the Museum of Television and Radio in New York discovered the program and added it to its collection.

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