Joan Alexander Biography
Joan Alexander Biography
Joan Alexander began her career in radio in 1940 and could almost be crowned queen of the soaps appearing in Against The Storm, Bright Horizon, The Second Mrs Burton, The Brighter Day, Rosemary, The Guiding Light, The Open Door, This Is Nora Drake, Young Dr Malone in the 1950’s and as Della Street in some of the Perry Mason episodes.
Joan Alexander starred as Althea the beautiful but selfish daughter of Reverend Richard Dennis the pastor of the little town of Three Rivers in the soap opera The Brighter Day. Not many episodes of this daily soap opera, which ran from the fall of 1948 until June 1956, are extant but we do have 2 episodes, which I will add over the weekend.
She could also be heard in episodes of Words At War, Columbia Presents Corwin, Columbia Workshop and Dimension X and then X-Minus One and as Ellen Deering, secretary to private detective Philo Vance in the 1945 detective melodrama of the same name and which you can listen to on RUSC today and all this week.
Undoubtedly Joan Alexander's most famous role was the voice of Lois Lane for most of the run of the Mutual Radio alongside Bud Collyer as Superman. He particularly enjoyed working with her saying, "Joan is one of those rare actresses—especially in radio where you can't be seen and have to depend entirely on voice - who can go in on something cold and her instincts are so right as an actress that without even a rehearsal or a read-through, she is right. She is a joy to work with."
Joan Alexander recalls, "On radio, you have to create a whole image and it isn't just with your voice—it's with your thoughts and your mind. You can't superficially play the result of a part; you have to play the action of a part."
Joan and Bud were also the voices in the animated series of Superman that the Fleischer Brothers produced during the 1940's and again for the TV animated series The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and The superman - Aquaman hour of Adventure in 1967.
Joan was "Lyra" in the 1949 series Captain Video and his Video Rangers an early television serial in which Al Hodge appeared as Captain Video from 1950-55.
She appeared as a regular panellist on the 1951 TV game show The Names The Same and along with other panellists would get to ask ten questions to guests who had the same name as a famous persons, fictional characters, or things, to try to determine their name. Joan also appeared as a guest Panellist on TV's What's My Line on 26 August 1951.
Joan, who's played on the stage in such plays as "Hamlet", with Leslie Howard and "The Amazing Mr. Clitterhouse" with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, finds television acting wearing in comparison. "You're always conscious of how you look", she says. "You have to be because there's no camouflage on television. Then there are the long hours of rehearsal and that time element that you're always fighting against."
Joan was married to her second husband Dr Arthur Stanton from 1955 until his death in 1987. She is the mother of authoress Jane Stanton Hitchcock and also has a son, Adam Stanton.
Joan Alexander confessed, She loved radio because she was never recognized in public. But once you hear her voice this week in Philo Vance and Superman you will certainly begin to recognize her in her many radio roles.
Happy listening my friends,
