Joan Crawford died on May 10, 1927.
Joan Crawford ( born Lucille Fay LeSueur ; March 23 , c. 1904 -- May 10 , 1977 ) was an American film and television actress who began her career as a dancer and stage showgirl . 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 .