1905-03-23

Joan Crawford, American actress was born on this date (d. 1977); OK. Not gay…but c’mon…definitely butch. And is there a nastier queen? Well, maybe Bette Davis, who, when informed of Crawford’s death was quoted as saying, “My mother always taught me never to speak ill of the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”

Crawford wasn’t all bad. She was fiercely loyal to the out gay actor Williams Haines, and they starred together in two silent films. She was unwavering in her friendship, even after his movie career fizzled because he refused to hide his homosexuality—or his life-partner Jimmie Shields—from the public, unlike other gay movie stars of the era. Crawford not only stood by him, she also enlisted him and Shields to give her Los Angeles home an overhaul—and helped launch his career as Hollywood’s go-to interior designer.

Crawford was also a close friend of the great gay director George Cukor (she gave two of her best MGM performances for him, in The Women and A Woman’s Face) and the bisexual director Edmund Goulding — in his 1932 best-picture winner Grand Hotel, Crawford even held her own in an all-star vehicle featuring Greta Garbo.