Joan Weldon

Joan Weldon, born Joan Louise Welton on August 5, 1930, in San Francisco, California, was an American actress and singer whose career spanned film, television, and theatre. She died on February 11, 2021. Raised in San Francisco by her grandmother, Olio Cornell, after losing her mother at age five, Weldon came from a family with roots in performance: her great-grandfather had worked as an actor in both stage and vaudeville. She attended Galileo High School, which inducted her into its Hall of Merit in 2019.

Weldon launched her professional career as a singer in the chorus of the San Francisco Grand Opera Company and later performed with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. In 1953, she appeared as soprano soloist on a broadcast of NBC radio's The Standard Hour. That same year, she made her film debut in The System, the first of three consecutive non-singing roles despite her operatic background. The following films, So This Is Love and The Command, continued in that vein. She signed a contract with Warner Bros., which lasted through 1954, and her most recognized film from that period was the cult thriller Them!

Her television work in the 1950s included an episode of The Millionaire in 1955, three appearances on Lux Video Theater, and a role as Marian Keats in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Angry Mourner" during the show's first season in 1957. In 1958, she portrayed Grace Wheeler in the Maverick episode "Plunder of Paradise" and appeared in Cheyenne, where she performed a duet with Clint Walker. Additional television credits from that period include the Have Gun – Will Travel episode "The Singer" and a 1958 appearance on Shirley Temple Theater, which marked her final television role. In 1955, she was also among the regular singers on the syndicated program This Is Your Music.

Weldon's Broadway career ran from 1957 to 1961, during which she appeared in Kean and The Music Master. She also sang at the opening of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in 1964. After her work in film and television, she returned to performing through road company productions, including The Music Man and Oklahoma!, before retiring in 1980.