Favorite star profile: Joan Bennett
As a blonde before dyeing her hair dark
I don’t know why it has taken me forever to blog about my favorite classic star, Joan Bennett. Do I think she was the most talented? No. The most beautiful? No. The most magical? No.
Joan Bennett is my favorite because when I was in middle school, I mailed her a fan letter to her address in Scarsdale, New York. I also mailed a letter to Olivia deHavilland in Paris and I think Maureen O’Hara in St. Croix. Anyway Bennett is the only one who replied. I received her autographed photo with my name 6 months after I wrote her. In pubescent years 6 months is like 3 years. I was so happy.
Forever brunette like me
I don’t remember why I wrote to her. I think I had seen her in The Son of Monte Cristo and Father of the Bride. I also had already been exposed to Dark Shadows. I was still unaware she was a film noir queen in such films as The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street. She also starred in the cult horror classic Suspiria. Joan Bennett worked with a lot of European directors including Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Max Ophuls, and Dario Argento
I’m positive my autographed photo was signed directly from Bennett not a secretary because I read the biography, The Bennetts: An Acting Family. Author Brian Kellow states in the last decade of her life, she enjoyed watching Jeopardy and answering fan mail.