Joanna Barnes Profile

Joanna Barnes

15 November 34	is born in Boston
?	is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College
?	silent-screen star Carmel Myers encourages her to launch her career
July 56	is signed to a contract by Columbia Pictures
56	she, Venetia Stevenson and Dani Crayne are introduced as Deb Stars by Bob Hope
March 57	is reported completing a novel
57	joins Warner Brothers. Jack Warner’s confidant, Richard Gully, takes her under his wing.
?	is asked to Conrad Hilton’s for a party for Serge Semenenko, the shady financier who took control of the studio. Richard Gully warns her that he may have an eye on her.
June 57	loses her part in Darby’s Rangers to British newcomer Joan Elan
July 57	is reported a twosome with actor Gary Merrill, the ex of Bette Davis
	columnist Walter Winchell reports her to be G. David Schine's new pulse-hopper
August 57	Winchell thinks she "and Kerwin Matthews, a former college professor, make an intelligent duosome...
September 57	is around with G. David Schine
April 58	is a new twosome with TV director Allan A. Buckhantz
May 58	has a furious feud with fellow actress Lita Milan over a white mink stole won by her as a door prize at a benefit with tickets given to her by the early-departing Lita. “I never intended keeping it,” snaps Joanna, “but when I got an insulting letter from Lita, I turned the matter over to Warner Brothers to handle.” Angrily Lita replies, “I had to find out from friends that the fur had been won on my tickets. I don’t care about the stole. It’s quite horrible and I wouldn’t wear it, anyway. It’s just the principle of the thing. If Joanna doesn’t turn it over, I plan to hire an attorney to take legal actions against her.”
March 59	Winchell reports she's spending all her spare time with Sheree North's former husband, Bud Freeman
April 59	is supposed to give leading man Dennis Miller a shove in a scene for Tarzan the Ape Man, but she slugs him over the eye, and he has to be treated for a cut, ending the shooting for the day
September 59	dates her "21 Beacon Street" co-star Brian Kelly, former student at Notre Dame
July 60	columnist Harrison Carroll suggest keeping an eye on her and recently divorced TV director Larry Dobkin
	is dropped from the Boston Social Register because she became an actress
August 60	Winchell asks: "What's with Joanna Barnes and Orrin Lehman?" and reports that she was Lehman's West Coast date "which was pretty embarrassing because they ran into Mary Morrison every night..."
January 61	her romance with George Stevens, Jr., is reported hotter than ever
17 June 61	in Los Angeles, she and Lawrence Dobkin announce they will marry on June 24 at the Ambassador Hotel
24 June 61	marries actor-director Lawrence Dobkin in Los Angeles. He's 41, she's 26.
?	resides with her husband in a 10-duplex apartment building that she and Dobkin just built in Van Nuys, California
65	films her TV series, “The Trials of O’Brien,“ at Filmway Studios, 127th Street and Second Avenue, New York. The shooting schedule permits a five-day respite every fifth week to allow her to travel home to see her husband. In between, he goes to New York for weekends.
?	writes a syndicated column on decorating for the Chicago Tribune-New York News syndicate and book reviews for the Los Angeles Times
4 July 66	she and Dobkin separate
19 August 66	is sued for divorce by Dobkin
September 66	says to plan "a whole news start in life" after her divorce from Dobkin. She has taken an apartment in New York on Park Avenue and will commute to Hollywood for screen roles.
Early January 67	replaces Joanna Moore in The War Wagon, allowing Moore to star in Moonshot
Mid-January 67	gets her divorce from Dobkin in Los Angeles. Dobkin claims "she would rather be an actress than a wife," and that she was away from home on many occasions without giving any explanation about her absence. Under a property settlement agreement she receives a cash settlement of $9,150. She waives alimony. Dobkin is given the home at 1528 Schuyler Road, Beverly Hills. He's 47; she's 32.
August 69	attends Buddy Greco's opening at Ciro's with Richard Gully. Other guests are Edward G. Robinson, David Janssen, Alex Cord and Joanna Pettet, the George Kennedys, and the Henry Bergers.
July 70	her family denies that the characters in her forthcoming novel, The Deceivers, are real people in her Hollywood past
August 70	completes her second novel, The Deceivers, dealing with behind-the-scenes adventures of a young actress on her way to stardom
November 70	the press tags her "the thinking man's Raquel Welch" and tells that she bought herself a brand new house and a brand new color TV with all the loot that's pouring in from the sales of her book
	dates presidential adviser Henry Kissinger
May 71	columnist Jack O'Brian writes: "Nixon's man-about-girls, Henry Kissinger, dates his classiest glittergal so far: Joanna Barnes, so elegant, and wotta doity book she smutted!"
February 72	her romance with Kissinger is reported either serious or semiserious. Columnist Suzy knows: "She maintains an apartment in New York - when she isn't on the Washington shuttle."
ca. 81	marries renowned architect Jack Lionel Warner
Mid-80s	becomes a novelist
02	she and Warner give up their large house in Montecito, California, to build a smaller one on adjacent land
17 January 12	becomes the widow of Warner, who dies at age 84 at his home at The Sea Ranch
29 April 22	dies in Sea Ranch, California

Sources: Cathy Ellis, "The Man Hollywood Trusted" by Amy Fine Collins in Vanity Fair, The Daily Independent, Burlington Daily Times-News, Nevada State Journal, The Lima News, The Vidette-Messenger, Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star, The Daily Gleaner, The Times Recorder, The News, Valley Morning Star, Daily Northwestern, Mansfield News-Journal, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Who's Who, Picturegoer, Hollywood Reporter
Recommended Books:
Links: Filmography