Leatrice Joy

Joy was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to dentist Edward Joseph Zeidler.{{cite book |title=Soard's New Orleans, Louisiana 1913 City Directory |year=1913 |publisher=Association of American Directory Publishers |page=1228 }}

She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, where she had planned on becoming a nun, but left when her father was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was forced to give up his dental practice. She tried out for the New Orleans–based Nola Film Company in 1915 and was hired as an actress. Her mother disapproved of her becoming an actress, but the family needed the money, so her mother accompanied her to California, where she began working in plays and films.{{cite journal|journal=Motion Picture |publisher=Macfadden-Bartell|volume=28|page=27}}{{cite book|last=Wayne|first=Jane Ellen|title=The Leading Men of MGM|year=2006|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=0-786-71768-8|page=84}}

File:Leatrice Joy in The Clinging Vine 1926 clip.webm]]

File:Leatrice Joy Evans.jpg

Joy began her acting career in stock theater companies and soon made her film debut; between April 1916 and by November 1917, she was the star of about 20 one-reel Black Diamond Comedies produced by the United States Motion Picture Corporation in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and released nationally by Paramount Pictures.{{cite journal|title=Leatrice Joy in Paramount Comedies.|url=https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor32newy|journal=The Moving Picture World |date=June 30, 1917 |page=2084 |access-date=December 12, 2012}} In many of these, she starred as Susie.

In late 1917 she relocated to the relatively young film colony in Hollywood, California, and began appearing in comedy shorts opposite Billy West and Oliver Hardy. Signed under contract with Samuel Goldwyn Studios, her first role for the studio was in 1917s The Pride of the Clan opposite Mary Pickford. Her career quickly gained momentum, and by 1920 she had become a highly-popular actress with the filmgoing public{{Citation needed |date=June 2023}} and was given leading-lady status opposite such performers as Wallace Beery, Conrad Nagel, Nita Naldi, and Irene Rich.{{Cite web |title=Silent Era : People |url=http://www.silentera.com/people/actresses/Joy-Leatrice.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=www.silentera.com}}

File:Leatrice Joy in The Ten Commandments.jpg (1923)]]

Directors often cast Joy in the strong-willed independent woman role, and the liberated atmosphere of the Jazz Age Roaring Twenties solidified her public popularity, especially with female movie goers. Her close-cropped hair and somewhat boyish persona (she was often cast as a woman mistaken for a young man) became fashionable during the era.{{Citation needed |date=June 2023}} With her increasing popularity, Joy was sought out by Cecil B. DeMille, who signed her to Paramount Pictures in 1922, immediately casting her in that year's successful high-society drama Saturday Night opposite Conrad Nagel. Joy starred in a number of successful releases for Paramount and was heavily promoted as one of DeMille's most prominent protégées.

In 1925, against the advice of studio executives, Joy parted ways with Paramount and followed DeMille to his new film company Producers Distributing Corporation, for which she made a few moderately successful films, including Lois Weber's last silent film The Angel of Broadway in 1927. After Joy impulsively cut her hair extremely short in 1926, DeMille was publicly angry as it prevented her from portraying traditional feminine roles.{{Citation |first=Schmertz |last=Johanna |contribution=The Leatrice Joy Bob: The Clinging Vine and Gender’s Cutting Edge |editor-last=Dall’Asta |editor-first=Monica |editor2-last=Duckett |editor2-first=Victoria |editor3-last=Tralli |editor3-first=Lucia |title=Researching Women in Silent Cinema: New Findings and Perspectives |year=2013 |pages=402–13 |publisher=University of Bologna |url=https://www.academia.edu/7801637 |url-access=registration |issn=2283-6462 |isbn =978-8-8980-1010-3}} The studio developed projects to promote the “Leatrice Joy bob” which she wore in Made for Love, Eve's Leaves, The Clinging Vine, For Alimony Only, and Vanity. Although she regrew her hair after styles changed in early 1927, a professional dispute ended the DeMille/Joy partnership in 1928, and she was signed with MGM. That year, she headlined MGM's second part-talkie effort, The Bellamy Trial opposite Betty Bronson and Margaret Livingston.{{Cite web |title=Silent Era : People |url=http://www.silentera.com/people/actresses/Joy-Leatrice.html |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=www.silentera.com}}

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Joy's career began to falter with the advent of talkies, possibly because her heavy Southern accent was considered unfashionable in comparison with other actresses' refined "Mid-Atlantic" diction. In 1929, she became a freelance actress without a long term contract. In order to improve her chances of regaining her film career, she undertook a vaudeville tour from 1929 to 1931, as a training ground for returning successfully to talkies. She was particularly interested in improving her voice and learning how to better handle dialogue.{{Citation needed |date=July 2024}}

By the early 1930s, Joy was semi-retired from the motion-picture industry, but she later made several guest appearances in a few modestly-successful films, such as 1951's Love Nest, which featured a young Marilyn Monroe.

In the 1960s, Joy retired to Greenwich, Connecticut, where she lived near her daughter and son-in-law.{{cite news|title=Former Film Star Ends Stay at Beach|date=May 24, 1962|work=The Los Angeles Times|page=F14}}

Joy appeared as a subject on the game show To Tell the Truth on July 1, 1963.

She was interviewed in the television documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980).{{cite video| people =Brownlow, Kevin; Gill, David| title =Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film.| url =https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-1-James-Mason/dp/6301931556| medium =video| publisher =Thames Video Production| date =1980}}

Joy was married three times and had one child. On March 22, 1922, she married actor John Gilbert. They had a daughter, Leatrice,{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?n=leatrice-fountain&pid=173996450|title=Leatrice Fountain's Obituary on GreenwichTime|website=GreenwichTime}}{{cite web|url=https://johngilbertandme.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/a-tribute-to-leatrice-gilbert-fountain-1924-2015/|title=Leatrice Gilbert Fountain (1924-2015): Daughter of Hollywood Legends|date=25 January 2015}} who later acted in bit parts; she was the first wife of novelist and playwright Ernest Gébler.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/son-reveals-edna-obriens-rows-with-jealous-husband-26551974.html|title=Son reveals Edna O'Brien's rows with jealous husband}}{{cite web |url=http://m.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/VIEW-Saved-from-ignominy-His-daughter-s-2623864.php|title=Saved from ignominy/His daughter's stubborn campaign put unfairly maligned actor John Gilbert back in the pantheon of silent film stars -- where he's always belonged |last1=LaSalle |first1=Mick|date=July 6, 2005 |website=sfgate.com |access-date=January 6, 2016}} Joy filed for divorce in August 1924, citing Gilbert's infidelity and alcoholism.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ejFFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hbsMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3069,1380849&dq=leatrice+joy+john+gilbert&hl=en|title=Leatrice Joy Asks Divorce|date=August 3, 1924|work=The Telegraph-Herald|page=22|access-date=February 12, 2013}}{{cite news|title=Symphony to Screen John Gilbert Classic Daughter Speaks Up About a Silent Legend|last=Arnold|first=Thomas K.|date=March 23, 1988|work=The Los Angeles Times|page=1}} Joy's second marriage was to businessman William Spencer Hook on October 22, 1931;{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bJBSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Mr4MAAAAIBAJ&pg=2519,6041064&dq=leatrice+joy+william+s+hook&hl=en|title=Leatrice Joy Has New Role; Through With Film Career|date=October 22, 1931|work=The Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal|page=1|access-date=February 12, 2013}} they divorced in 1944. Joy's third and final marriage was to former actor and electrical engineer Arthur Kem Westermark. They married on March 5, 1945, in Mexico City and divorced in October 1954.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KKULAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DlUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2697,266624&dq=leatrice+joy+arthur+westermark&hl=en|title=Leatrice Joy Wed Electrical Engineer|date=March 14, 1945|work=The Evening Independent|access-date=February 12, 2013}}{{cite news|title=Leatrice Joy Divorced|date=October 22, 1954|work=The New York Times|page=24}}

During her silent film career in the 1920s, she was Hollywood's best known Christian Scientist.{{cite book|title=Silent Topics: Essays on Undocumented Areas of Silent Film|author=Anthony Slide|quote=In the 1920s, actress Leatrice Joy was Hollywood's best known Christian Scientist; in the 1930s it was Jean Harlow|page=31|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2005|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-t8vnF3OI8IC&pg=PA31|isbn= 0810850168|chapter=Christianity Hollywood Style: Reverend Neal Dodd}}

On May 13, 1985, Joy died from acute anemia at the High Ridge House Christian Science nursing home in Riverdale, Bronx, New York.{{cite news|title=Leatrice Joy, 91, Dies; Actress in Silent Films|date=May 18, 1985|work=The New York Times}}{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-05-15-me-8597-story.html|title=Featured in DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments' : Silent Film Star Leatrice Joy Dies at 91|date=May 15, 1985|work=The Los Angeles Times|access-date=2014-01-27}} She was interred at the Saint Savior Episcopal Churchyard in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.{{Citation needed |date=August 2022}}

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Leatrice Joy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6517 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, California.{{cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/leatrice-joy/|title=Hollywood Star Walk|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=February 12, 2013}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{IMDb name|0431433}}
• Leatrice Joy at [http://www.goldensilents.com/stars/leatricejoy.html Silents Are Golden]
• Leatrice Joy at [http://www.silentera.com/people/actresses/Joy-Leatrice.html Silent Era People]
• Leatrice Joy at [https://web.archive.org/web/20050207171212/http://silent-movies.com/Ladies/PJoy.html Silent Ladies & Gents]
• Leatrice Joy at [http://www.cyranos.ch/spjoy-e.htm The International Silent Movie]
• Leatrice Joy at [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=9774 Virtual History]

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Category:1893 births

Category:1985 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from New Orleans

Category:American Christian Scientists

Category:American film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Deaths from anemia

Category:Paramount Pictures contract players

Category:Converts to Christian Science from Roman Catholicism