Joan Crawford was a person.
Joan Crawford . Beginning her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies , before debuting as a chorus girl on Broadway , Crawford signed a motion picture contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925 . But her career gradually improved in the early 1940s , and she made a major comeback in 1945 by starring in Mildred Pierce , for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress . She would go on to receive Best Actress nominations for Possessed ( 1947 ) and Sudden Fear ( 1952 ) .