Joan Crawford's Real Name: Lucille Fay LeSueur

Quick answer: The actress is known professionally as Joan Crawford. Britannica and Encyclopedia.com independently give the original name Lucille Fay LeSueur and place her birth in San Antonio, Texas, on March 23, but they differ on the year: Britannica gives 1904 with a question mark, while Encyclopedia.com gives 1906 and says she had given the year as 1908. Both date her death to May 10, 1977, in New York City (Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

Independent publishers support the documented original name Lucille Fay LeSueur. Britannica says she also danced in nightclubs under the name Billie Cassin and that by 1924 she was dancing in Broadway musicals. Encyclopedia.com independently records Billie Cassin as a name variation, dates the San Antonio birth to March 23, 1906, and names her parents as Thomas LeSueur, a laborer, and Anna Bell Johnson LeSueur. It also says she had given her birth year as 1908. This page records the 1904, 1906, and 1908 wordings rather than treating one year as settled.

Career highlights

Britannica says she was on the screen from 1925 and danced through popular films including Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), and Dancing Lady (1933), then found early dramatic success in The Women (1939) and A Woman's Face (1941). It calls Mildred Pierce (1945) a major turning point and says she won an Academy Award for the role, later naming Humoresque (1947), Sudden Fear (1952), and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Encyclopedia.com independently says she appeared in 80 films and received an Academy Award for Mildred Pierce, and also lists Baby Jane and The Caretakers (1963). Britannica also names earlier dramatic credits including Susan and God (1940) and Strange Cargo (1940), and says she was married to the actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Franchot Tone, and Phillip Terry, and later to Alfred Steele, chairman of the Pepsi-Cola Company, after whose death in 1959 she became a director of the company.

Death

Britannica and Encyclopedia.com independently date her death to May 10, 1977, in New York City.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Joan Crawford, Lucille Fay LeSueur, or Billie Cassin are looking for the same American film actress. Independent sources support the original name used in the title.