The daughter of a West Virginia druggist, Joanne Dru came to New York
in 1940. In New York she worked as a model and was cast by
Al Jolson as one of the showgirls in his
Broadway play "Hold Onto Your Hats." When the show closed in 1941, she
married popular singer Dick Haymes and went
with him to Hollywood. Discovered by a talent scout while working in
the theater, Joanne made her screen debut in
Abie's Irish Rose (1946), and
that picture almost ended her career. Two years later she "redeemed"
herself with her role in the classic
Howard Hawks western
Panik am roten Fluß (1948). She followed that
with another western, John Ford's
Der Teufelshauptmann (1949),
again playing opposite John Wayne.
Unfortunately, her success in those two classics resulted in the
scripts being submitted to her consisting of mostly westerns, and she
got typecast (this from a woman who said, "I simply hated horses...").
In 1950 she was cast in another John Ford western,
Westlich St. Louis (1950), which became
the basis for the Ward Bond TV series
Wagon Train (1957). Even though
she played in films other than
westerns--Der Mann, der herrschen wollte (1949),
The Pride of St. Louis (1952)
and Blutige Straße (1955),
for example--it was the westerns for which she was remembered. By the
late 1950s westerns were running out of steam and so was her screen
career, so she turned to TV, where she appeared on shows such as
Playhouse 90 (1956).
In 1960 Joanne was cast in the role of the Eastern owner of a dude
ranch in the comedy series
Guestward Ho! (1960). Perhaps
even funnier is that she would play an Easterner after all those
westerns is the fact that her character name was Babs. The show ended
in 1961.
