Joan Blondell (Above) born Rose Joan Blondell on August 30, 1906, in New York City. Died December 25,1979 from leukemia in Santa Monica. Her father was a vaudeville comic, and Joan was onstage at the age of 3. She was a member of a professional stock company at 17, and co-starred with James Cagney in the Broadway production of Penny Arcade in 1929. The play was filmed as Sinner's Holiday in 1930 by Warner Brothers, with both Cagney and Blondell in their stage roles. Blondell went on to star with Cagney in ten more films, and though Cagney continued on to the first tier of Hollywood stardom, Blondell worked opposite many leading men but did not carry films on her own and was considered a 'leading support' player to boost a male lead. She went independent in 1939, and had a academy award nomination for The Blue Veil in 1951. She made occassional films (like the Hepburn/Tracy Desk Set in 1957) and had numerous roles on television (she also did dozens of radio programs). She once said about Hollywood "There`s a very fine line between underacting and not acting at all. And not acting is what a lot of actors are guilty of. It amazes me how some of these little numbers with dreamy looks and a dead pan are getting away with it. I`d hate to see them on stage with a dog show."