50 years ago she was 28 (born November 16, 1942), she’s somewhat older now. Born in London, raised in Canada. Some of her earliest roles were on the soaps The Doctors, The Doctors and the Nurses and Doctor Kildare, so a lot of medical training. I probably remember her from the Night Gallery series which played on NBC in the early 70’s. Something that just occurred to me about her personality, she was incapable of overacting. Too much of a reserved presence for that. In a lot/most of her roles she comes across as an extremely sophisticated and dignified lady (capital L). Probably wouldn’t have worked real well opposite Penny Marshall in Laverne & Shirley. While thinking just now about that example, I snorted how funny it would have been! It became very intriguing to consider though… especially with a woman loaded with such panache.

You can tell she’s a real blonde by the freckles. The photos I put first were from that period I considered her unbeatable, say 1968 – 1978. I put a few at the end that were before and after that period just to show you what I’m talking about. She typified the era. The wispy slender blonde with a quiet dignity. She fit into the hippy era perfectly. Its hard to explain if you weren’t there. The bellbottoms, the fringe vests, a headband. I was thinking that if there was an overarching assessment of her career, was that she was underutilized. While doing research for this post I noticed that’s exactly what the bio on IMDB at the link above said too. They said directors began using her for the ‘wow’ she brought, and not her acting chops.

Hollywood then and now likes to pigeonhole actors as either TV or movie. She got marked as TV material. I have no idea why but her résumé confirms it. Which is fine with me, just thought I’d point it out. A number of actresses like her faced a similar dilemma. How to increase her fame? Make herself more of a marketable commodity? Playboy Magazine was a big deal back then. A few, like Marilyn Monroe, an appearance in Playboy definitely didn’t hurt and likely helped their career. I would have to say for Joanna’s 1968 appearance in the magazine guaranteed her a TV career. A lot of times back then it ended up making a woman look “desperate” or cashing in. She would have been 26 at the time.

A lot of really beautiful women like that had a busy career until about age 40, then it petered out. So the calculation she had to make in 1968 was (she would have turned 40 in 1982), build it slow and see what happened in the next 14 years? Or roll the dice and see what appearing nude did for her? You got to realize the 60’s was quite the swinging time, nudity was a lot more common in movies and such then it is now. An indication of just how beautiful she was is by how Getty Images gobbled up her photo stock. I was left with about 5 I could use. Which is fine, but a lot of the ones they have are the casual ones that show the era so much better. Her love interests, the nightlife, the ‘biz’. The “real” her.

I have found out over the last couple of years with my “The 10 Most Beautiful Women” of the decades posts, that I’m not the only man that enjoys looking at the icons from back in the day. Men have fantasies and dreams about all different women. They come in quite the assortment of sizes and shapes. Loud women, quiet women, arrogant, or reserved. Blonde, dark, voluptuous or slender. Not one woman (I don’t think) appeals to every man. What shaped our individual desires I doubt even we could say. Half of it is likely subconscious. From reading her bios, a great grief from her life naturally was the death of her only child, Damien Zachary Cord, from an acute heroin overdose in 1995 at age 26.

I could be way off base on this one, but Black & White seems to work out better for some women then others. I’d say she is in the former group. The next group of photos she looks dramatically different to me in, both younger and older. Very strange to me the difference.

For me this is a fun exercise. I’ve covered 8 decades of beautiful women. Other men’s hobby’s might be cars or guns or coins or stamps. As I’ve mentioned some women standout more than others, even while having nearly identical backgrounds, ages or even physical appearance. Through the hundreds of women there’s always been a handful that seem to be more in the forefront of my recollections than others. Say that if you could only have 1 DVD to watch the rest of your life, who would you want on it? I suppose a lot of it comes down to, “Who do you like?” Who stands out as nice, warm, funny, interesting and enjoyable? A silly exercise, but fun. For me I think what stars like Joanna are is an embodiment, of the women you’ve known in your own life. Representing who knows what.