Joan Fontaine - ©Theda Bara

The actress I bring in this post is an Anglo-American, born in Japan, I'm talking about Joan Fontaine, who initially used the stage name Joan Burfield, having later assumed the surname Fontaine.

Joan was one of the countless stars of Hollywood's golden age. The height of her fame occurred in 1942, when she won the Oscar for Best Actress, for her performance in the film: “Suspicion” (1941), playing “Lina McLaidlaw”, in the plot of: Alfred Hitchcock (1889-1980).

There was a great rivalry behind the scenes in Hollywood between sisters Joan Fontaine (the youngest) and Olivia Mary de Havilland (1916-2020), an Anglo-American-French actress, born in Japan. Olivia always considered herself a better actress than her sister and is one of the few to have received the Oscar for Best Actress on more than one occasion. This rivalry gave rise to the biography: “Sisters: The Story of Olivia de Havilland e Joan Fontaine” (1984), by the English writer, editor and poet Charles Higham (1931-2012).

Joan Fontaine has her star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame, at 1645 Vine Street, Cinema category.

Joan Fontaine, born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, October 22, 1917, Tokyo, Japan, died December 15, 2013, Carmel Highlands, California, United States, aged 96.

The actress was married four times. Her first marriage was to British actor William Brian de Lacy Aherne, known as Brian Aherne (1902-1986) from 1939 to 1945; her second marriage was to American film and television producer, writer and actor William McElroy Dozier (1908-1991) from 1946 to 1951, with whom the actress had a daughter, audiobook narrator Deborah Dozier Potter (1948-); third marriage was to American film producer and writer, who worked on many films in the (1950s) before becoming television producer for NBC and CBS programs, Collier Hudson Young (1908-1980) from 1952 to 1961 During this relationship, the actress adopted a girl, Martita Pareja (1946-), when the couple took a trip to South America, while in Cuzco, Peru, Joan met Martita, an adorable little girl who survived by begging on the streets of city; and her last marriage was to journalist and magazine editor Alfred Wright, Jr. (1914-1971) from 1964 to 1969. After this marriage, Joan Fontaine lived alone (without getting married), only in the company of employees in her apartment in New York, United States.