S20E05: Joan Bennett

Hollywood legend Joan Bennett didn’t always want to follow in her family’s footsteps as an actor. The youngest of the Bennett Sisters, her siblings Constance and Barbara were already film stars by the time Joan determined to hang a shingle as an interior designer, but motherhood got in the way. After her first short marriage and divorce, she had an extra mouth to feed, which launched her on a decades’ long career that spanned dozens of films, including Puttin’ on the Ritz, She Wanted a Millionaire, and Little Women, where she played Amy alongside Katherine Hepburn’s Jo. But her storied career hit a significant obstacle in 1951, when her third husband opened fire on her manager, believing them to be having an affair, and Joan, more than either man, was sidelined for the scandal. Until a little show called Dark Shadows premiered, anyway.