Joan Caulfield

Caulfield appeared on Broadway in Beat the Band in 1942. Directed by George Abbott it ran for 67 performances.[7]

She had a great success portraying the troublesome teenager Corliss Archer in the 1943 hit comedy play Kiss and Tell, also under the direction of Abbott. It was a huge success, running for 956 performances until 1945. After a year in the role, Caulfield left the production to pursue offers from Hollywood and she was replaced by her sister Betty Caulfield. (Shirley Temple would play Caulfield's role in the 1945 film version of Kiss and Tell.) Paramount offered her a contract which gave her six months off a year to do a play.

In July 1944 Paramount put Caulfield in a lead role in her first film: Miss Susie Slagle's (1946), a drama about medical students with Sonny Tufts and Veronica Lake.[8]

The film was not released for a number of months due to a backlog of films. Made after but released earlier was Duffy's Tavern (1945), in which Caulfield had a cameo along with most of Paramount's talent roster.

Caulfield was Bob Hope's leading lady in Monsieur Beaucaire (1946), a popular comedy.

She was with Bing Crosby and Paul Draper in Blue Skies (1946). When original director Mark Sandrich died, Caulfield was pulled out of the film but Crosby insisted she stay. Eventually Draper was replaced with Fred Astaire. The result was a huge box office success.[9][10] Caulfield waived her right to take time off to do stage work.[11]

Caulfield was teamed with William Holden in Dear Ruth (1947), based on the hit play by Norman Krasna.

She was reunited with Crosby in Welcome Stranger (1947), another huge hit, and had a cameo in another all-star Paramount film, Variety Girl (1947).[10]

One of Caulfield's most memorable film roles was when she was loaned out to Warner Bros. to appear in The Unsuspected (1947) with Claude Rains and Audrey Totter. Caulfield, taking over a role intended for Virginia Mayo, was billed over Rains.[12]

Back at Paramount, Caulfield did The Sainted Sisters (1948) with Lake, playing roles intended for Betty Hutton and Diana Lynn.[13] Universal borrowed her for a starring role in a film noir, Larceny (1948).

Paramount offered Caulfield $100,000 for 40 weeks work but she walked out on it to do Voice of the Turtle and Coquette on stage on the east coast. She said she did this because "I want to become a really great actress one day", and felt she needed the experience from stage. "Actresses in the movies spend most of their acting time with the hairdresser and the costumer."[14] She returned to Paramount to do a sequel to Dear Ruth, Dear Wife (1948).

Caulfield went to Columbia to make a musical with Robert Cummings, The Petty Girl (1950) which she said she did to change from the "sweet young thing" parts she did at Paramount. She said she intended on staying in Hollywood.[15]

She did a film for her husband's company, The Lady Says No (1951), releasing through United Artists.[16]

In the early 1950s, Caulfield began guest starring on television shows such as Robert Montgomery Presents, Lux Video Theatre, The Ford Television Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse and Hollywood Opening Night. She said she preferred working in television.[17]

In 1953, she signed a contract with CBS. In the 1953 and 1954 seasons,[5] she co-starred with Barry Nelson (the original James Bond, albeit on television) in the television version of My Favorite Husband,[18] which was based upon the Lucille Ball radio series that evolved into I Love Lucy.[19]

She had a supporting role in The Rains of Ranchipur (1955). In August 1955, she left her CBS contract to pursue feature work.[20]

She was in Celebrity Playhouse, Schlitz Playhouse again, Screen Directors Playhouse, and The Ford Television Theatre again.

Being the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life in 1957 brought Caulfield to the attention of television executives. In the words of a newspaper writer, "she photographed so beautifully that the show was hardly over before she was being approached for television appearances."[18]

During the 1957–1958 season, Caulfield starred in Sally, a short-lived situation comedy, in the role of a traveling companion to an elderly widow, played by Marion Lorne. At midseason, Gale Gordon and Arte Johnson joined the cast.[21]

When the series ended, Caulfield continued to guest-star on shows like Pursuit, General Electric Theater, Hong Kong, Cheyenne, Burke's Law, and My Three Sons. She did stage shows like I Am a Camera and had the occasional role in a feature, such as Cattle King (1963), Red Tomahawk (1967) and Buckskin (1967).[22]

In 1967, she starred in the TV series The High Chaparral as Annalee Cannon in the pilot episode. She was murdered in the episode and that was the premise for the whole plot.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Caulfield was active in touring companies of plays, summer stock theater and dinner theater across the country.[5] She guest starred in a 1966 episode of My Three Sons as Florence, a visiting former girlfriend who Steve could not remember ever knowing. She could be seen in the pilot for The Magician (1973), The Daring Dobermans (1973), The Hatfields and the McCoys (1975), The Space-Watch Murders (1975), Pony Express Rider (1976), and episodes of Baretta and Murder, She Wrote.