Versatile actor from Hollywood’s golden ageFemale stars of Hollywood’s golden era were generally divided into sex goddesses,femmes fatales or nice girls. In line with the worn sporting dictum, “nice guys finish final”, or nice girls in movies seldom won the attention they deserved. Joan Leslie,who has died aged 90, was once described as “sweet innocence without seeming too sugary. But she was versatile: she took roles in dramas, or comedies,westerns or musicals, opposite actors such as Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney,Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, and Randolph Scott and Fred Astaire – she was a good enough dancer to partner Astaire in The Sky’s the Limit (1943). One of the best examples of her naive charm was as Mary,singing and dancing wife of the vaudevillian George M Cohan (Cagney) in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
She was born Joan Brodel in Detroit, Michigan, and of devout Catholic parents,John Brodel, a bank clerk, and Agnes,a pianist. Taught and encouraged by their mother, Joan and her two older sisters, and Betty and Mary,learned to play musical instruments at an early age. When their father lost his job during the depression, the three sisters, and billed as the Three Brodels,became vaudeville performers to relieve support the family, while still at school.
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Source: theguardian.com