- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJoan Marie O'Brien
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Joan O'Brien began her show-biz career while she was in high school, on a local TV music show in California with Tennessee Ernie Ford. Soon, she was a successful singer, and made the jump to acting. In about half the films she ever made, it appeared that Joan played a nurse. Perhaps her most memorable appearance was in Blake Edwards' Operation Petticoat (1959), as the nurse who gets in everyone's way because her, umm, "proportions" cause uncomfortable crowding in a small submarine. Because of her, Cary Grant becomes the first officer in the history of the U.S. Navy to sink an enemy truck! She again played a nurse in the Jerry Lewis film, It's Only Money (1962), and yet one more time with Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)--and, according to legend, fired up a hot off-screen romance with Elvis. Also in 1963, in a strange sort of "Columbo" connection, she was voted "most likely to wed Robert Vaughn". Joan's final movie was Get Yourself a College Girl (1964), a "Swinging Sixties" teenfest also featuring Nancy Sinatra, with music by The Animals and The Dave Clark Five. After that, she went back to singing for a while, touring with the Harry James Orchestra. She left show business for good to concentrate on raising her kids, and later became a successful executive with the Hilton Hotel chain.
- IMDb mini biography by: johnnymac@elvis.com
- SpousesLt. Col. Malcolm Bernard Campbell(August 4, 1979 - May 8, 2004) (his death)Dino Kotopoulis(March 27, 1966 - October 1967) (divorced)Harvey Allen Godorov(April 12, 1963 - October 18, 1964) (divorced)John F. Meyers(October 20, 1957 - March 23, 1960) (divorced, 1 child)Billy Strange(July 18, 1954 - July 6, 1956) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenRussell StrangeMelissa Ann Meyers
- ParentsDavid O'BrienRita O'Brien
- Had a brief romance with Elvis Presley, her co-star in It Happened at the World's Fair (1963).
- After retiring due to a stormy personal life, she settled down and successfully raised two children while running a management firm for the Hilton Hotel chain.
- As of 2015, was living in Auburn, CA.
- After her acting career ended, O'Brien sang with the Harry James band in 1968. Almost a decade earlier, she had sung with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra and performed as a soloist for composer Buddy Bregman at the Moulin Rouge night club in Los Angeles.
- 1953 Deb Star.
- [on Cary Grant] He was a very warm, down-to-earth, straightforward guy. With his legendary screen image, I thought he might be difficult or hard to work with. But he wasn't.
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