Joan Chandler

Joan Chandler, born Joan Cheeseman on August 24, 1923, in Butler, Pennsylvania, was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television. The daughter of Carl Cheeseman and his wife, she began studying ballet at age five and took piano lessons from her mother, who was a musician. She attended Butler High School before enrolling at the School of Arts at Bennington College and later training at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Prior to her professional acting career, she toured with a ballet company.

Chandler was a founding member of The Actors Studio and built a career across multiple performance mediums. Her Broadway work ran from 1944 to 1958 and encompassed five productions: The Lady from the Sea, The Late George Apley, My 3 Angels, The Disenchanted, and Where's Charley?. Beyond the stage, she appeared in approximately twelve television programs, including Studio One and Starlight Theatre.

Her film work comprised three features. She appeared opposite Joan Crawford in Humoresque in 1946, playing Gina Romney, and starred alongside James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope in 1948, in the role of Janet Walker. Her third film credit was Dragstrip Riot in 1958, in which she played Lisa.

Chandler was married twice, first to David McKay, with whom she had one daughter, and subsequently to Dr. Charles C. Hogan. Both marriages ended in divorce. She died of cancer in New York City on May 11, 1979, at the age of 55. Her papers, covering the years 1923 to 1959, are held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.