operaqueen:Joan “She was the perfect image of the movie star and as such largely the creation

operaqueen:

Joan

“She was the perfect image of the movie star and as such largely the creation of her own indomitable will. She had of course very remarkable material to work with: a quick native intelligence, tremendous animal vitality, a lovely figure and above all her face, that extraordinary sculptural construction of line and planes, finely chiseled like the mask of some classical divinity from fifth century Greece. It caught the light superbly, so that you could photograph her from any angle, and her face moved beautifully … The nearer the camera, the more tender and yielding she became – her eyes glistening, her lips avid in ecstatic acceptance. The camera saw, I suspect, a side of her that no flesh-and-blood lover ever saw …” 

Director George Cukor’s eulogy for Joan Crawford at her memorial service, 1977. 

Died on this day forty-five years ago: mesmerizing fierce-eyed Golden Age Hollywood screen diva, Miss Joan Crawford (23 March 1904 – 10 May 1977).