She was one of Hollywood's brightest and most controversial stars. For nearly five decades, Joan Crawford captivated audiences from the silent era to the 1960s in roles that defined the grit and glamour of American cinema.
Praised for her acting, ranging from her Oscar-winning turn as a single mother in Mildred Pierce to the gothic tension of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Crawford's brilliance masked a complex story of poverty, scandal, and relentless ambition.
In his new biography, Joan Crawford: A Woman's Face, West Palm Beach native and author Scott Eyman peels back the layers of the legend to reveal a woman's contradictions, generosity, and mystery. Eyman is appearing at the Miami Book Fair to talk about his book on Saturday, Nov. 22.
"There was more mysteries about Joan Crawford than I think almost any other actress of her generation," Eyman told WLRN. "I mean, nobody really knew when she was born. She said she was born in 1908. But everybody, all actresses in the Hollywood era, you know, subtracted a few years from their age to sustain their career just a little bit longer."
Eyman's latest work draws on fresh research, long-buried records, and candid interviews with family members to separate the myth of Crawford, Hollywood's tabloid lightning rod, from the human being behind it all.
Eyman, a film historian and former Palm Beach Post journalist, started his research from "ground zero" and found that even Crawford's birthplace was murky.
"She said she was born in San Antonio, but there's no birth certificate," he explained. "But that's not in itself proof that she wasn't born in San Antonio because Texas did not mandate birth certificates when she was born, which is almost certainly 1905, 'cause the 1910 census has her being five years old."
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His research even uncovered a surprise in Crawford's family tree. "We found a husband of her mother that no one knew existed," Eyman revealed. "And her mother had a, I think it'd be fair to say, a colorful marital history. As did Joan."
Eyman, an acclaimed New York Times bestselling biographer who has published nearly 20 books — including John Wayne: The Life and Legend and Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise — reveals that Crawford's relationship with her mother may have shaped her rocky professional and romantic life. He explains that her career and personal relationships, often surrounded by rumors of love affairs with powerful Hollywood men, were also marked by troubled dynamics with her children.
Crawford, who died from a heart attack in 1977 during a bout with pancreatic cancer, embodied old Hollywood glamour at a time when repeated divorces were scandalous and her every move was under the microscope.
Her four marriages caused a stir because her carefully crafted "Cinderella" public image clashed with her messy love life, giving tabloids plenty to talk about, Eyman noted.
Today, it's an opportunity to probe how society often shapes various narratives surrounding career-driven women. And when she married Alfred Steele, chairman of Pepsi-Cola, her last marriage, it added a whole new layer of intrigue, turning her into both a movie star and a corporate power figure.
From poverty to power
But Eyman said Crawford's story is also defined by self-invention, from poverty to power.
"She grew up very poor in Texas and Kansas," said Eyman. "Lower middle class. On her best day, she had one semester of college and she had to work her way through high school bartering her labor for classes."
Despite limited education, Crawford possessed charisma and drive. "She could dance. She had personality. She had extraordinary beauty," Eyman added.
He said Crawford's work ethic became legendary in Hollywood. After being dropped from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), she revived her career with Mildred Pierce in 1945, a performance that earned her an Oscar.
In a Mildred Pierce scene set in a shadow-filled living room, a hallmark of Hollywood's film noir style, Crawford, as Mildred Pierce, stands composed, her voice quivering with exhaustion as she faces her spoiled and entitled daughter, Veda, played by actress Ann Blyth.
Veda sneers with disgust after learning her mother has been working as a waitress, and Mildred fires back: "I took the only job I can get so you and your sister could eat and have a place to sleep and some clothes on your backs." Veda sneers again, which is followed by Mildred's anger — and finally, a powerful slap from Mildred.
The moment captures the heart of the film, a mother's sacrifice met with her child's rejection. But it also captures Crawford's emotional range mirroring her off-screen life.
"She could be intimidating, you know, as a person if she chose to be," Eyman said. "She could also be very vulnerable and needy if she chose to be. She could play either of those roles absolutely sincerely."
"It wasn't just manipulation, well, sometimes it would be; but she could also, you know, like every other human being, have times when you just want someone to pat you on the head and say it's gonna be okay."
Crawford's Palm Beach County connection:
Eyman read through previous biographes, went through property deeds, archival records, and oral histories from his extensive connections with her family members to paint Crawford in a new light.
"Luckily I talked to a lot of people over the years who knew Joan Crawford. I lived in West Palm Beach. I knew Douglas Fairbanks Jr very well. He lived in Palm Beach for years," Eyman said. Fairbanks, Crawford's first husband, offered an invaluable perspective on the actress's early fame and drive, he said.
A philanthropic legacy
Despite the chaos surrounding her relationships and career, Crawford quietly gave back to the industry that made her. Eyman notes that most of her estate went to charity, including profit shares from her films.
"What I related to, as I got deeper into the book, was her personal generosity," Eyman said.
"When she died, she left her percentages of her films or profit percentages of her films to the Motion Picture Home... her profit percentage of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, I'm sure, has tossed off a considerable amount of money over the last what almost 50 years. So she was very philanthropic."
Key beneficiaries also included the American Cancer Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the nonprofits supporting U.S. military members.
In the end, Eyman told WLRN, one word explains Joan Crawford's life: desire. "Emphatically the key to Joan Crawford was desire," he said. "She desperately wanted to get out of Texas and out of Kansas."
"She wanted to be somebody. But what does someone who has no background in show business, who has no background in acting? How do you make yourself into what you need to be? That's the story of Joan Crawford, and that is a story that's eternally valuable to anybody who wants to work to be creative."
IF YOU GO
What: Miami Book Fair
When: Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 3pm
Where: 300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132; Room 8301 (Building 8, 3rd Floor)
More details here
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