Brenda Joyce (actress)

Brenda Joyce
Joyce in the 1940s
Born	Betty Graftina Leabo (1917-02-25)February 25, 1917 Excelsior Springs, Missouri, U.S.
Died	July 4, 2009(2009-07-04) (aged 92) Santa Monica, California
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Betty Ward
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1939–1949
Spouse(s)	Owen Ward (1941–1960), ? Bemis (?-?), Howard Mager (?-?)

Brenda Joyce (February 25, 1917 – July 4, 2009) was an American film actress.

Early years

The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Grafton Leabo, Joyce was born Betty Graftina Leabo in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, although family and friends referred to her as Graftina.

When she was 5 years old, she moved with her mother to San Bernardino, California, staying there through her junior high school years. They moved to Los Angeles, California, where she attended high school. She entered the University of Southern California on a scholarship but transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles after one semester.

Modeling

Between her years in college and those in film, Joyce was a model for photographers. She appeared "in current magazines -- in new automobiles, using toothpaste, modeling shoes, smiling her way through the glossy life of a magazine girl."

Career

Although she appeared in many B-movies of the 1940s, she had a prominent supporting role in the major 1939 film The Rains Came opposite George Brent and Myrna Loy, and was cast as Maris Hanover in the 1942 film, Little Tokyo, U.S.A.. She is best-remembered as the seventh actress to play Jane in the Tarzan series of films. She succeeded Maureen O'Sullivan in the series and appeared in the role five times.

Her first four appearances as Jane were opposite Johnny Weissmuller. However, her last performance as Jane, in Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949), was with Lex Barker as Tarzan. Joyce and Karla Schramm, from the silent era, were the only two actresses to play Jane opposite two different actors playing Tarzan.

She retired from acting in 1949.

Later years

Joyce retired "at the peak of her career to raise a family." Later, as Betty Ward, she became director of the Catholic Resettlement Office in Monterey, California, and "helped hundreds of refugees find new lives in America."

Personal life

She was married to Owen Ward, whom she had known "since her junior high school days," from 1941 until their divorce in 1960; they had three children, Pamela Ann, Timothy Owen and Beth Victoria.

Death

Joyce died of pneumonia on July 4, 2009, in a nursing home in Santa Monica, California.

Selected filmography

• The Rains Came (1939)
• Here I Am a Stranger (1939)
• Public Deb No. 1 (1940)
• Little Old New York (1940)
• Maryland (1940 film)
• Private Nurse (1941)
• Marry the Boss's Daughter (1941)
• The Postman Didn't Ring (1942)
• Little Tokyo, U.S.A. (1942)
• Whispering Ghosts (1942)
• Right to the Heart (1942)
• Thumbs Up (1943)
• Pillow of Death (1945)
• Tarzan and the Amazons (1945)
• The Enchanted Forest (1945)
• Strange Confession (1945)
• I'll Tell the World (1945)
• Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946)
• Little Giant (1946)
• Danger Woman (1946)
• The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946)
• Tarzan and the Huntress (1947)
• Stepchild (1947)
• Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948)
• Shaggy (1948)
• Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949)

External links

• "Brenda Joyce". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
• Brenda Joyce at IMDb
• Brenda Joyce at AllMovie
• "'Tarzan' actress Brenda Joyce dies at 92". Associated Press. Retrieved July 23, 2009.