Joan Weldon (born as Joan Louise Welton on August 5, 1930, San Francisco, California) is an American film and television actress. She began her career singing in the San Francisco Grand Opera Company chorus. Later she became a contract actress with Warner Bros. where she remained until her contract ended in 1954. Her most prominent film was the cult thriller Them!Weldon had a brief television career in the 1950s. Her first appearance in 1955 was in an episode of The Millionaire, starring Marvin Miller. She made three appearances on Lux Video Theater in various roles. She also played Marian Keats in the title role of the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Angry Mourner" in 1957. Her final television appearance was in 1958 on Shirley Temple Theater.She resumed her career as a singer in road company productions including The Music Man and Oklahoma!. Weldon retired in 1980.
[on Edmund Gwenn, with whom she worked on Them! (1954)] . . . he was in great pain. He was crippled with arthritis. But when they said, "Camera! Action!", you'd never know that there was a thing wrong with him. He was just right there, and he'd move, and the moment they said "Cut!", he'd just crumble.
2
I didn't think much of [the movie] Them! (1954) when I read the script. I just knew that [my character] was a scientist, and I was hoping that somewhere along the line there would be some romance or love interest. But [director] Gordon Douglas didn't want to refer to any kind of romance whatsoever. It was totally devoid of any interplay with anybody. The ants were supposed to be the star.
3
I was a singer, that was my first love.
#
Fact
1
Educated at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and U.Cal., Berkeley.
2
1953 Deb Star.
3
Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book "I Was a Monster Movie Maker" (McFarland & Co., 2001).
4
In the book "Cars Of The Fabulous '50's" in the 1953 Packard section, on page 169, there appears an ad for a contest to "Give Joan Weldon, young Hollywood starlet a new name." The winner was given a choice of a new 1953 Packard Caribbean convertible and a trip to Hollywood, or $7500 cash".
5
In her salad days, she joined the chorus of the San Francisco Grand Opera Company (the youngest to ever be placed on contract) and later sang with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Company. It was during a performance with the latter that she was spotted for films by 20th Century Fox. They subsequently passed on her but she eventually signed with Warner Bros.
6
Made a rare appearance in March of 2004 at a 3-D screening of The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953).
7
Following her film career, which faded with the end of the Hollywood studio system, she returned successfully to the musical stage.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Home Before Dark
1958
Frances Barrett
Shirley Temple's Storybook
1958
TV Series
Amelia
Maverick
1958
TV Series
Grace Wheeler
Colt .45
1958
TV Series
Edith Murrow
Have Gun - Will Travel
1958
TV Series
Faye Hollister
Day of the Badman
1958
Myra Owens
Perry Mason
1957
TV Series
Marion Keats
Cheyenne
1957
TV Series
Nellie Merritt
Gunsight Ridge
1957
Molly Jones
Lux Video Theatre
1953-1956
TV Series
Anne / Patricia Dean / Intermission Guest
The Millionaire
1955
TV Series
Star Conway
Deep in My Heart
1954
Joan Weldon
Them!
1954
Dr. Patricia Medford
Riding Shotgun
1954
Orissa Flynn
The Boy from Oklahoma
1954
Maybelle - Saloon Girl on Porch (uncredited)
The Command
1954
Martha Cutting
The Stranger Wore a Gun
1953
Shelby Conroy
So This Is Love
1953
Ruth Obre
The System
1953
Felice Stuart
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Cheyenne
1957
TV Series performer - 1 episode
This Is Your Music
1955
TV Series performer - 1 episode
Deep in My Heart
1954
performer: "Lover, Come Back to Me"
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
This Is Your Music
1955
TV Series
Herself - Host / Herself - Singer
Lux Video Theatre
1954
TV Series
Herself - Intermission Guest
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
American Masters
2008
TV Series documentary
Dr. Patricia 'Pat' Medford
Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us
$7 Million
