 She was a
gorgeous platinum blonde in the
tradition of Monroe, Mansfield,
and Van Doren but she was nowhere
near as popular. Joi Lansing was
born Joyce Wassmandorff to Mormon
parents in Salt Lake City Utah on
April 6, 1929. At about 20 the
gorgeous, young, and shapely
(36-23-33) model relocated to
Hollywood where she was
immediately cast in “window
dressing” roles in such
movies as ‘Easter
Parade’ (1948),
‘Blondie’s
Secret’ (1948), and
`Julia Misbehaves’
(1948). She was crowned Miss
Hollywood in 1950 though the
title did nothing to further her
career and she went back to
modeling full time. Later the
same year she married and
divorced her first husband
Columbia Studios executive Jerome
Safron in just 4 months. And in
early 1951 she eloped with actor
Lance Fuller (‘The
Bride and The Beast’,
‘This Island Earth’).
The same year Joi also returned
to films playing minor roles (at
least these had names!) in such
flicks as ‘FBI Girl’
and ‘On The Riviera’.
Due to her incredible looks Joi
continued to be cast --- but in
miniscule roles, though sometimes
she was in big movies like ‘Singing
In The Rain’
(1952). She divorced Fuller in
1953. Then came
TV and Joi found better success
in the fledgling medium. The
5’5” actress was cast
in ‘I Love Lucy’,
‘The Adventures of
Wild Bill Hickock’,
and ‘Four Star
Playhouse’, before
landing a recurring role as
Shirley Swanson on ‘Love
That Bob’ (1956-59)
with Bob Cummings. The show
proved she had acting talent and
comic ability. The visibility of
the role led to parts on other
shows (‘Perry Mason’,
‘Sea Hunt’,
‘Maverick’,
'The Untouchables’,
etc) as well as some better roles
in films --- she was in the Zsa
Zsa Gabor vehicle ‘The
Queen of Outer Space’
(1958), as well as ‘Hot
Cars’ (1956),
‘So You Think The
Grass is Greener’
(1956), ‘The Brave
One’ (1956), and
‘Hot Shots’
(1956). Joi also has a brief but
important appearance in the Orson
Welles’ classic ‘A
Touch of Evil’
(1958) as Zita, the girl who
hears something ticking in her
head at the beginning of the
film. In 1959 Joi played Dorine
in the film ‘A Hole
in the Head’ with
Frank Sinatra and Edward G.
Robinson. During this period Joi
was also the frequent companion
of Mr. Sinatra.
Following
the end of ‘Love
That Bob’ Joi moved
onto another series as Goldie on
the NBC-TV series ‘Klondike’
(1960-61) with Ralph Taeger.
During this period Joi did more
television with guest parts on
‘’Make Room for
Daddy’, ‘Ozzie
and Harriet’ and
‘The Adventures of
Superman’ among
others. It was also during this
period that Joi married her third
husband Stan Todd her finance
manager. Following this Joi was
cast in what would become her
most famous role – as
gorgeous Gladys Flatt (wife of
Lester Flatt) in the popular
CBS-TV series ‘The
Beverly Hillbillies’.
This was Joi’s busiest
career period. In 1965 she cut a
record album (which included
songs written by Stella
Stevens!), did some nightclub
performing and dinner theatre
work, appeared as Lola in the
Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin vehicle
‘Marriage on the
Rocks’ (1965), and
guest-starred on TV shows like
‘The Mothers In Law’
and ‘Petticoat
Junction’.
Following
this period of work Joi Lansing
also made 2 abysmal horror films.
The first was the 1967 flick
‘The Hillbillies In
The Haunted House’
which concerned the goings on of
a group of country-western
singers who find themselves
spending the night in an spooky
old mansion. Joi starred as Boots
Malone in this cinematic
mess-terpiece, which also starred
Ferlin Husky, Merle Haggard, John
Carradine, Lon Chaney, and Basil
Rathbone. It is pretty much an
embarrassment for all concerned.
Joi’s second horror flick
was ‘Bigfoot’
(1970) in which she played Joi
Landis (hmmm). The movie
costarred John Carradine and
Chris Mitchum. It would also be
her final film. In the movie Joi
plays a sort of muse/love
interest to ‘Bigfoot’
himself – think Faye Wray in
the forest. The movie was never
released during her lifetime.
In 1970
the Mormon actress (who
didn’t drink alcohol, smoke,
or consume coffee) was diagnosed
with breast cancer and underwent
removal of the tumor. Joi briefly
recuperated, but the cancer
returned quickly. Joi Lansing
succumbed to the disease on
August 7th, 1972 in
Santa Monica, CA and was buried
in Santa Paula Cemetery. ‘Bigfoot’
was finally released the
following year. It was rumored
that Frank Sinatra paid her
medical expenses after her death.
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