Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress, one of three acting sisters from a show-business family. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 films from the era of
silent films, well into the
sound era. She is best remembered for her
film noir femme fatale roles in director
Fritz Lang's films—including ''
Man Hunt'' (1941), ''
The Woman in the Window'' (1944), and ''
Scarlet Street'' (1945)—and for her television role as matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (and ancestors Naomi Collins, Judith Collins Trask, Flora Collins, Flora Collins PT, and Elizabeth Collins Stoddard PT) in the gothic 1960s soap opera ''
Dark Shadows'', for which she received an
Emmy nomination in 1968.
Bennett's career had three distinct phases: first as a winsome blonde ingenue, then as a sensuous brunette
femme fatale (with looks that movie magazines often compared to those of
Hedy Lamarr), and finally as a warmhearted wife-and-mother figure.
In 1951, Bennett's screen career was marred by scandal after her third husband, film producer
Walter Wanger, shot and injured her agent
Jennings Lang. Wanger suspected that she and Lang were having an affair, a charge which she adamantly denied. She married four times.
For her final film role, as Madame Blanc in
Dario Argento's cult horror film ''
Suspiria'' (1977), she received a
Saturn Award nomination.
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