An interviewer was scheduled to come to the house that morning and he was not cancelled, so Ms. It had occurred earlier when the daughter was a child too a fire started in their Beverly Hills home but was quickly put out. There was more to it than that I have read it was a deliberate fire. The judge finally ruled in favor of Beverly's current husband, who was away on a business trip the night Beverly's careless smoking ended the family lineage. An ongoing court battle was highly publicized in the Los Angeles Times because attorneys argued over the sequence of deaths of Joan's Mother, (Nina Davis) and the two grandchildren (Guy and Larry) by trying to determine the sequence of deaths and who the most likely beneficiary might have been had a family member survived.
A subsequent lawsuit was filed by Beverly's second husband (father of her two deceased sons) and the man she was currently married to in 1963. her daughter, Beverly, won most of the estate until her death (and remaining family members) in the Octohouse fire. However, after Joan' sudden death on May 23, 1961, her estate went into litigation and the show was pulled from syndication.
An endless series of reruns enabled an ailing Joan to garnish royalties while periodically making rare TV appearances and a failed sitcom pilot. "I Married Joan" was still a network hit on the NBC daytime schedule after it left primetime TV in March, 1955.
It was a tragic post script to an entertainer that delighted audiences in nearly every medium of entertainment. Tragically, on October 24, 1963, Davis's daughter Beverly Wills fell asleep smoking a cigarette her Palm Springs home caught fire, killing her, her two sons, and Davis's mother. Her daughter and ex-husband made headlines after her death, wrangling over the million-dollar estate of Joan Davis, which was eventually settled in favor of her daughter. On May 22, 1961, Davis suffered a heart attack and died in Palm Springs at the age of 53. Unknown to audiences the retirement was brought on by a growing heart problem.
After I Married Joan left the air in 1955, Davis more or less retired. Davis also cast her daughter Beverly Wills in the role of Joan's younger sister. Somewhat surprising is that she hired ex-husband Si Wills to write for the series. Leaving movies for television, Davis started her own production company, which produced Davis's NBC comedy I Married Joan from 1952 through 1955. Davis continued making movies through 1952, when her final film Harem Girl was released. Cantor and Davis made two movies together - "Show Business" (1944) and "If You Knew Susie" (1948). There were also reports that Davis was having an affair with vaudville comedian and singer Eddie Cantor. In 1937, 20th Century-Fox put her under contract with much greater success.Īs Davis' success grew, her marriage faltered. Upon the release of the short in 1935, RKO signed Davis to a contract, but Davis and RKO parted ways soon after. She was almost immediately successful, securing a role in the Mack Sennett short Way Up Thar in 1935. By the mid 1930s, Davis made her way to California in an attempt to break into films. In the summer of 1931, Davis married vaudeville veteran straight man Si Wills, with whom she had become a comedy act two years later their daughter Beverly was born.
Paul, Minnesota, on June 29, 1907, zany comedienne Joan Davis began her show business career in vaudeville as a child. The sad tragedy happened after Joan Davis died at a young age.īorn Madonna Josephine Davis in St. Many comedians led tragic lives, but Davis' life was relatively happy. Joan Davis was one of those rubber faced comedians of the 1930s and 1940s, that highlighted any film she was in.