Joan Crawford died on May 10, 1927.
Joan Crawford . Crawford became one of Hollywood 's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest-paid women in the United States , but her films began losing money and , by the end of the 1930s , she was labelled `` box office poison '' . 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 . After his death in 1959 , Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but she was forcibly retired in 1973 . Following a public appearance in 1974 , after which unflattering photographs were published , Crawford withdrew from public life and became increasingly reclusive until her death in 1977 .