Joanne Dru

For her first film, she landed the starring role in Abie's Irish Rose (1946), but the film flopped at the box office and was slaughtered by critics. Her next role, however, was in Howard Hawk's hit western Red River (1948; with John Wayne), in which she costarred with John Ireland. By this time her marriage to Haymes was disintegrating, and in 1949 Dru divorced Haymes and married Ireland. Dru and Ireland made a number of films together, including All the King's Men (1949; with Broderick Crawford), Vengeance Valley (1951; with Burt Lancaster), Hannah Lee (1953; with Macdonald Carey), and Southwest Passage (1954; with Rod Cameron). Although she appeared in a healthy dose of dramas and film noir thrillers, due to her frequent appearances in westerns Dru found herself typecast by the late 1950s.

Beyond 1960, Dru made just two more films. Throughout the 1960s, her acting career flourished on television, where she took guest spots in many shows. Dru's brother, comedian and game show host Peter Marshall, invited her to appear on Hollywood Squares numerous times in the 1960s and 1970s. After Dru's divorce from John Ireland in 1957, she married two more times. Her third husband died in 1972, and and fourth husband left her a widow in 1992. Sadly, by this time Dru's health had begun to deteriorate, and she passed away on September 10, 1996, at the age of 74. She was survived by her three children.

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