Joan Fontaine net worth is $40 Million. Also know about Joan Fontaine bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Joan Fontaine Wiki Biography

Born as Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on the 22nd October 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, she was an American award- winning actress, best known to the world for appearing in numerous feature films during the Hollywood golden era, including “Rebecca” (1940), “Suspicion” (1941), “Letter from an Unknown Woman” (1948), and “Ivanhoe” (1952), among many other accomplishments. She passed away in 2013.

Have you ever wondered how rich Joan Fontaine was at the time of her death? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Fontaine’s net worth was as high as $40 million, an amount earned through her successful career in the entertainment industry, which was active from the mid- 30s, until the mid- ‘90s.

Joan was the daughter of Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor at the Imperial University in Tokyo, who later became patent attorney, and Lilian Augusta de Havilland Fontaine, who before leaving for Tokyo was a stage actress, but forewent her career for the sake of family, however, just three years after Joan’s birth, her parents divorced and Joan, her mother, and her older sister Olivia, who later also became a successful actress, moved to the US.

The Fontaine trio settled in Saratoga, California and young Joan attended Los Gatos High School, and also began taking diction lessons with her older sister. Once she turned 16, Joan moved back to Japan to live with her father, where she enrolled at Tokyo School for Foreign Children, matriculating in 1935, then returned to the USA and commenced her acting career.

Joan made a debut first on stage, in the play “Call It a Day” (1935), and in no time she received a contract offer from, none other than RKO Pictures. She made her screen debut in the romantic comedy “No More Ladies”, which starred Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and Charles Ruggles, and although only a minor role, Joan was already considered a star, and in 1937 she was cast in the lead role of Nurse Doris King in the drama “The Man Who Found Himself”, next to John Beal and Phillip Huston. The same year she starred in the romantic comedy film “A Damsel in Distress”, with Fred Astaire, Gracie Allen and George Burns, however, the film received mixed reviews and failed at the box office, which resulted in Joan’s role in RKO Pictures being diminished. Until the end of her contract in 1939, she appeared in more several minor roles, but was then let go from the production house.

However, she was quickly back on track when she met producer David O. Selznick at a dinner party, and the two found a joint interest in the novel “Rebecca”, written by Daphne du Maurier, and David called her up to audition for the film of the same name. After months of preparation for the audition, Joan finally showed her talents and was selected to portray Mrs. de Winter in the romantic mystery drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which was his debut film for the American market. The following year, Hitchcock and Joan worked together again, this time on the mystery thriller “Suspicion”, for which Joan received an Academy Award in the category Best Actress in a Leading Role; the film also starred Cary Grant and Cedric Hardwicke, and earned over $4 million at box office, which helped increase Joan’s net worth to a large degree. Throughout the ‘40s, Joan starred in many blockbuster films, such as “The Constant Nymph” (1943), then “Jane Eyre” (1943) – an adaption of the Charlotte Bronte novel – then the comedy “The Affairs of Susan” in 1945, in which she shared the screen with George Brent, while in 1948 she starred with Louis Jordan in the romantic drama “Letter from an Unknown Woman”, and the same year was the female lead in the Academy Award- nominated romantic comedy “The Emperor Waltz”, next to Bing Crosby and Roland Culver.

She continued quite successfully in the early ‘50s, appearing in such films as “Born to Be Bad” (1950), and in William Dieterle’s Golden Globe Award- winning romantic drama “September Affair” (1950) with Joseph Cotton, while two years later she appeared with Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Taylor in the adventure drama “Ivanhoe”, which was nominated for three Academy Awards. In 1956 Joan made appearance in the crime drama “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”, and finished the decade with a role in the 1958 drama “A Certain Smile”.

With the start of the ‘60s, her popularity began slowly to decline, which resulted in only a few memorable appearances; these included the portrayal of Baby Warren in the drama “Tender is the Night” in 1962, then the starring role of Gwen Mayfield in the horror “The Witches” (1966), thriller “Dark Mansions” in 1986, and as Queen Ludmilla in the drama “Good King Wenceslas” in 1994, which was her last screen appearance.

Although her career on screen declined slowly, she became a stage star in a number of theater appearances, including on Broadway in plays “Tea and Sympathy” and “Forty Carats”, which also improved her wealth.

Back in 1960 she received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, thanks for her success in film.

Regarding her personal life, Joan had four marriages and divorces, and one child from those relationships. Firstly to actor Brian Aheme (1939-45), then a year later she married actor/producer William Dozier, with whom she had her only child, Deborah Leslie, born in 1948, but they divorced the year after. Joan soon found a new partner, and in 1952 she married Collier Young, a producer and writer; their marriage lasted until 1962, but she filed for divorce two years before she was officially divorced from the successful television producer. Her last marriage was to Alfred Wright, Jr., which lasted from 1964 to 1969.

In 1951 a visit to South America saw her adopt a girl from Peru, named Martita. The two lived together until Martita was 16 years old, when she escaped the Fontaine household. The deal was that Martita visit her parents back in Peru that year, but instead she fled and Joan and Martita never spoke again.

Throughout her life, Joan had problems with her sister, behaving as though they hated each other. Their altercation culminated in 1975 following the funeral of their mother, after which the two didn’t speak to each other.

Joan owned a house in Carmel Highlands, California, called Villa Fontana, and passed away in her home from natural causes at the ripe old age of 96, on the 15th December 2013.

IMDB Wikipedia (1.6 m) $40 million 1917 1917-10-22 2013 2013-12-15 Actress Alfred Wright American American School in Japan Bing Crosby Brian Aherne m. 1939–1945 British California Carmel Highlands Collier Young m. 1952–1961 Debbie Dozier Deborah Leslie Dozier December 15 Japan Japanese Joan Crawford Joan Fontaine Joan Fontaine Net Worth Jr. Jr. (m. 1964–1969) Lillian Fontaine Los Gatos High School Martita Martita Pareja October 22 Olivia de Havilland Roland Culver Tokyo United States Walter Augustus de Havilland William Dozier m. 1946–1951

Joan Fontaine Quick Info

Joan Fontaine Trademarks

1. Often played delicate women put through emotional turmoil

Joan Fontaine Quotes

• I make pictures because I like to be able to get a good table when I go to a nightclub and because I like to travel.
• I’m a very affectionate person, and no man was ever able to satisfy that need for affection as well as my dogs do.
• When I came to Hollywood I did not know [Ida Lupino], and she was married to Collier Young, his nickname was “Collie”. A few years after they were married, they got a divorce, but remained friends. I had been in pictures for a few films and Ida wanted me to be in a film with her called The Bigamist (1953). It turned out that Collie was going to co-produce the film with Ida. I got a chance to meet Collie, I fell in love with him, and I married him. So, as it turned out, when Ida was very ill and in the hospital I visited her. She knew that I loved animals and asked if when the time comes, would I take Holden [Lupino’s dog] to come and live with me. So this is how I came to be Holden’s owner. So it turns out that I got two collies from Ida Lupino, and they both turned out to be dogs!
• [in 1978, on marriage] The main problem in marriage is that, for a man, sex is a hunger-like eating. If a man is hungry and can’t get to a fancy French restaurant, he’ll go to a hot dog stand. For a woman, what’s important is love and romance.
• [in 1978, about sister Olivia de Havilland] Olivia has always said I was first at everything. If I die, she’ll be furious because, again, I’ll have got there first.
• [on beating sister Olivia de Havilland for the Oscar] I froze. I stared across the table, where Olivia was sitting. “Get up there!” she whispered commandingly. Now what had I done? All the animus we’d felt towards each other as children, the savage wrestling matches, the time Olivia fractured my collarbone, all came rushing back in kaleidoscopic imagery.
• I made about seven tests for Rebecca (1940). Everybody tested for it. Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, Vivien Leigh, Susan Hayward, Anne Baxter, you name her. Supposedly, [Alfred Hitchcock] saw one of my tests and said, “This is the only one”. I think the word he used to describe what set me apart was “vulnerability”. Also, I was not very well-known and producer David O. Selznick saw the chance for star-budding. And may I say he also saw the chance to put me under contract for serf’s wages.
• You know, I’ve had a helluva life. Not just the acting part. I’ve flown in an international balloon race. I’ve piloted my own plane. I’ve ridden to the hounds. I’ve done a lot of exciting things.
• [on Olivia de Havilland] My sister is a very peculiar lady. When we were young, I wasn’t allowed to talk to her friends. Now, I’m not allowed to talk to her children, nor are they permitted to see me. This is the nature of the lady. Doesn’t bother me at all.
• I hope I’ll die on stage at the age at 105, playing Peter Pan.
• [on working with director George Cukor on The Women (1939)] I learned about acting from George than anyone else and through just one sentence. He said, “Think and feel and the rest will take care of itself.”
• [on Olivia de Havilland] We’re getting closer together as we get older, but there would be a slight problem of temperament. In fact, it would be bigger than Hiroshima.
• [on Charles Boyer] Charles Boyer remains my favorite leading man. I found him a man of intellect, taste and discernment. He was unselfish, dedicated to his work. Above all, he cared about the quality of the film he was making, and unlike most leading men I have worked with, the single exception being Fred Astaire, his first concern was the film, not himself.
• [on working with Orson Welles on Jane Eyre (1943)] You can not battle an elephant. Orson was such a big man in every way that no one could stand up to him. On the first day at 4 o’clock, he strode in followed by his agent, a dwarf, his valet and a whole entourage. Approaching us, he proclaimed, “All right, everybody turn to page eight.” And we did it, though he was not the director.
• [Before the failure of her first marriage] Too many Hollywood marriages have smashed up because husbands were Mr. Joan Fontaine. That will never happen in our marriage because I am 100% Mrs. Brian Aherne.
• I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia [sister Olivia de Havilland] did, and if I die first, she’ll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!
• If you keep marrying as I do, you learn everybody’s hobby.
• Marriage, as an institution, is as dead as the dodo bird.

Joan Fontaine Important Facts

• Suffered from anemia and measles as a child.
• She and Katharine Hepburn both appeared in productions of “The Lion in Winter” (Hepburn in the 1968 film version [The Lion in Winter (1968)]), Fontaine in a 1979 Austrian stage production), and both passed away at the age of 96. Fontaine had appeared onscreen with Hepburn in Quality Street (1937).
• Similar in theory to Bette Davis when she won her Oscar for Dangerous (1935) after losing for Of Human Bondage (1934), many felt Joan’s Best Actress Oscar win for Suspicion (1941) was in sympathy for losing out for her brilliance in the classic film Rebecca (1940).
• A close friend of Ida Lupino, Joan inherited her collie dog after Lupino died.
• All of Joan’s memorabilia was to be donated to Boston University following her death.
• After a self-imposed retirement, Joan returned and played Good Queen Ludmella in the TV movie Good King Wenceslas (1994) because the base of her house in Carmel, California, was damaged by an earthquake and Joan decided it was better use the money she got for the movie to fix the house rather than take $200,000 out of her bank account.
• The Rose Society named a rose after her, The Joan Fontaine Rose.
• The long-standing feud between she and sister Olivia de Havilland was seldom discussed by Olivia. Joan, on the other hand, was quite candid and felt the complete victim of Olivia’s abuse and blamed her sister for the long estrangement. Her side of the story is that the feud started practically from Joan’s birth–and that the root of their problem was Olivia’s acute unhappiness at having to share the attention of her parents with a younger sibling. The fighting continued into their hair-pulling, clothes-tearing teen years as well.
• When she decided on a movie career, her mother told her that Warner Bros.–which had sister Olivia de Havilland under contract–was “Olivia’s studio” and that Joan was not to pursue work there. She realized that she couldn’t use the de Havilland name and instead took her stepfather’s last name, Fontaine. Joan eventually got an agent and signed with RKO.
• She claimed that she was the first choice for the role of Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939), but that director George Cukor felt she was too stylish to play the role. She then suggested sister Olivia de Havilland to him and Olivia went on to play the part. Olivia’s version of how she got the part makes no mention of this or Joan.
• In 1946, a huge crack in the sisters’ already tense relationship occurred when Joan made an unkind remark about Olivia’s new husband, author Marcus Goodrich. Olivia insisted on an apology or she would not talk to her anymore. Joan refused to do so. A year later when Olivia won her first Oscar, Joan, who was at the awards show as a presenter, went up to congratulate her sister but was completely snubbed.
• In 1979, the year after Joan’s frank autobiography was published, the sisters both attended the Academy’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Oscars and Oscar winners, but were seated on opposite ends of the stage for the “class photo”, apparently at their request, and did not speak with each other at any time.
• At the time of her death there had been no reconciliation between she and sister Olivia de Havilland.
• Was the 18th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Suspicion (1941) at The 14th Academy Awards on February 26, 1942.
• Was considered for the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945).
• Survived by her daughter Debbie Dozier and two grandsons.
• Was a registered Democrat.
• Was friends with Ida Lupino, Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones, Anita Colby, David Niven, Lillian Gish, Charles Boyer, George Cukor, Joan Bennett, Constance Bennett, Lana Turner and Bob Hope and wife Dolores Hope.
• She died in her sleep of natural causes at the age of 96 in her home in Carmel, California.
• Her paternal grandfather, the Reverend Charles Richard de Havilland, was from a family originally from Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. Her other ancestry included Anglo-Irish and English.
• From 2003 until her death, she resided in Carmel, California, on her estate known as Villa Fontana.
• Was allergic to shellfish.
• She used to correspond with her fans on a regular basis until her 90th birthday. The only time fans received mail from her personally was at Christmastime.
• She was the last surviving cast member of George Cukor’s The Women (1939) until she passed away in December 2013.
• In a rare act of reconciliation, Joan and her sister Olivia de Havilland celebrated Christmas 1962 together with their then-husbands and children.
• Is one of three Japan-born actresses to have won an Academy Award. The others are her sister Olivia de Havilland and Miyoshi Umeki.
• Lost her virginity to Conrad Nagel when she was 20.
• Allegedly was treated horribly by Laurence Olivier during their time together on the set of Rebecca (1940) as he had campaigned for his then-girlfriend Vivien Leigh to be given the part of Mrs. De Winter.
• Her personal favorite film of hers was The Constant Nymph (1943).
• According to an in-depth article on her by Rod Labbe in “Classic Images” magazine, Joan was offered the role of Karen Holmes, the adulterous army wife, in Columbia Pictures’ From Here to Eternity (1953), based on James Jones’ novel, after the studio had purchased the film rights. Joan was subsequently forced to decline the role because, at the time, she was embroiled in a particularly ugly custody battle over daughter Debbie Dozier with ex-husband William Dozier. Leaving California to film extensively in Hawaii would have jeopardized Joan’s case. The part went to second choice Deborah Kerr, who earned an Oscar nomination. Joan later replaced Kerr on Broadway in the original production of “Tea and Sympathy”.
• Alfred Hitchcock and George Cukor were her favorite directors.
• She became an American citizen on April 23, 1943.
• She and her sister Olivia De Havilland worked tirelessly as nurses’ aides during WWII and made numerous appearances at the Hollywood Canteen in support of American troops.
• Vice-President Emeritus of the Episcopal Actors’ Guild of America.
• In Italy, almost all of her films were dubbed by Lidia Simoneschi. She was occasionally dubbed by Rosetta Calavetta and Renata Marini. She was dubbed once by Micaela Giustiniani in The Women (1939), once by Dina Perbellini and once by Paola Barbara in Suspicion (1941).
• Relations between Fontaine and her sister Olivia de Havilland were never strong but worsened in 1941, when both were nominated for best actress Oscar. Their mutual dislike and jealousy escalated into an all-out feud after Fontaine won for Suspicion (1941). Despite the fact de Havilland went on to win two Academy Awards of her own, they have remained permanently estranged.
• Her autobiography, “No Bed of Roses” was published in 1979. Ex-husband William Dozier thought a more appropriate title should have been “No Shred of Truth”.
• Ex-sister-in-law of Pierre Galante and Marcus Goodrich.
• When her sister, Olivia de Havilland, was 9 years old, she made a will in which she stated “I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan, since she has none”.
• Head of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1982
• She and Olivia de Havilland are the first sisters to win Oscars and the first ones to be Oscar-nominated in the same year.
• Daughter, Martita, born 3 November 1946, adopted 1952. Ran away in 1963. When Joan found her she was refused contact with the child on the premise that her Peruvian adoption was not valid in the United States. Martita and Joan in later years, wrote and talked on phone to each other quite often. Martita also visited Joan at her home in Carmel.
• First husband Brian Aherne had a friend call her the night before their wedding to tell her he had cold feet and couldn’t marry her. Joan told the friend to tell him it was too late to call it off, that he had better be at the altar the next morning to marry her, and he could divorce her afterwards if he wanted. He was there at the altar and they remained married six years, never mentioning this incident to each other.
• Became pregnant twice in 1964, at the age of 46, but miscarried both times.
• The only actor or actress to win an acting Oscar in a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She won Best Actress for Hitchcock’s 1941 film Suspicion (1941).
• Took her stage name from her step-father, George Fontaine.
• At the age of three she scored 160 on an infant IQ test.
• She was a licensed pilot, champion balloonist, expert rider, prize-winning tuna fisherman, a hole-in-one golfer, Cordon Bleu chef and licensed interior decorator.
• Gave birth to her only child at age 31, a daughter Deborah Leslie Dozier (aka Debbie Dozier) on November 5, 1948. Child’s father is her 2nd ex-husband, William Dozier.
• Attended Oak Street School in Saratoga, California.
• Joked that the musical comedy A Damsel in Distress (1937) set her career back four years. At the premiere, a woman sitting behind her loudly exclaimed, “Isn’t she awful!” during Fontaine’s onscreen attempt at dancing.
• Daughter of film and stage actress Lilian Fontaine.
• Younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland

Joan Fontaine Filmography

Joan Fontaine Awards