Joan Rice in 1950

A while ago I posted a rather blurred photo that I had found of Joan Rice at ‘The Milliner’s Hat Fashion Show’. Above is the stunning original of that same photograph, kindly supplied by Joan’s friend Maria Steyn. It looks to me like it could have been taken yesterday, although it is dated 1950.

Joan would have been about 20 years old; a year after she had won the ‘Miss Nippy’ beauty contest and on the brink of movie stardom. A year later she would be personally selected by Walt Disney, from six other actresses, to play the part of Maid Marian in his live-action movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) at Denham Studios. Not bad for a young girl who had in arrived in London a couple of years earlier with only half a crown in her purse.


Please click on the label 'Joan Rice' for more images and details about her life.