Joan Caulfield; Actress in TV and Movies

Joan Caulfield, the demure and delicate featured player in several films who later starred in two television situation comedies, died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The 69-year-old actress was admitted to the Los Angeles hospital June 3 and found to be suffering from advanced cancer, a hospital spokesman said.

A former model and stage actress, Miss Caulfield was blessed with milk-white skin and strikingly blonde hair that made her a box-office favorite during Hollywood’s Technicolor era during and after World War II.

But after marrying producer Frank Ross in 1950, she made fewer and fewer pictures and switched her professional emphasis to television.

She starred in two short-lived series, one as Liz Cooper, the harebrained wife of sedate banker Barry Nelson in “My Favorite Husband,” which aired from 1953 to 1955, and the other as Sally Truesdale in “Sally,” the 1957-58 situation comedy about a salesgirl who accompanies a wealthy and wacky widow on her jaunts around the world.

Miss Caulfield, who married her dentist after divorcing Ross in 1959, also appeared in two television landmarks: the first TV adaptation (Oct. 2, 1950) of the “Lux Theatre,” where stars brought new life to old films, and in W. Somerset Maugham’s “A String of Beads,” adapted for the small screen in a 1952 segment of the “Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.”

Born Beatrice Joan Caulfield, her wholesome good looks contributed to a successful modeling career before she moved to Broadway and acting.

On Broadway, a starring role in George Abbott’s “Kiss and Tell” caught the attention of Paramount producer Buddy De Sylva, who brought her to Hollywood.

She was cast in two routine pictures, “Duffy’s Tavern” in 1945 and “Miss Susie Slagle’s” in 1946, before her big break.

In “Blue Skies,” a 1946 all-star musical with songs and lyrics by Irving Berlin, she was romanced by two giants of the screen--Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

Miss Caulfield followed that opposite another superstar, Bob Hope, in “Monsieur Beaucaire” then made “Dear Ruth,” which marked William Holden’s return to acting following service in World War II.

She did a sequel to “Dear Ruth” (“Dear Wife” in 1949), starred in “The Rains of Ranchipur” with Lana Turner, Fred MacMurray and Richard Burton, filmed “The Petty Girl” with Robert Cummings and then began a gradual retreat from pictures and back to the stage.

Her last film was “Pony Express Rider” in 1976, 10 years after she divorced for a second time. But she often appeared with repertory companies on stages throughout the nation during the 1970s.

Her two sons, Caulfield Kevin Ross and John Peterson, were at her bedside when she died.