Joan Leslie (born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel; January 26, 1925
â€" October 12, 2015) was an American actress and vaudevillian who,
during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in such films as High
Sierra, Sergeant York, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.Joan Agnes Theresa
Sadie Brodel was born on January 26, 1925, in Highland Park, Michigan,
the youngest child of John and Agnes Brodel. John was a bank clerk and
Agnes was a pianist.Joan's two older sisters, Betty (born 1919) and
Mary Brodel (1916â€"2015), shared their mother's musical interest and
started to learn how to play instruments, such as the saxophone and
the banjo, at an early age. They began performing in front of
audiences in acts that included singing and dancing. Leslie joined the
duo at two and a half years of age. She was soon able to play the
accordion.With her father losing his job in the mid 1930s, the Great
Depression caused financial difficulties for the family. As a result,
the three sisters entered show business as vaudeville performers to
support the family. They began touring in Canada and the United
States. Collectively, they were known as The Three Brodels. As an
attempt to bypass child labor laws at the time, both Mary and Joan
pretended to be older than they were. When Leslie was nine, she told
child labor investigators that she was 16 years old. Joan proved to be
the scene stealer of the three sisters because of her impersonations
of figures such as Katharine Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, and Jimmy
Durante. Coming from a family of Irish ancestry, Leslie was raised as
a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools in Detroit, Toronto,
and Montreal.
â€" October 12, 2015) was an American actress and vaudevillian who,
during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in such films as High
Sierra, Sergeant York, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.Joan Agnes Theresa
Sadie Brodel was born on January 26, 1925, in Highland Park, Michigan,
the youngest child of John and Agnes Brodel. John was a bank clerk and
Agnes was a pianist.Joan's two older sisters, Betty (born 1919) and
Mary Brodel (1916â€"2015), shared their mother's musical interest and
started to learn how to play instruments, such as the saxophone and
the banjo, at an early age. They began performing in front of
audiences in acts that included singing and dancing. Leslie joined the
duo at two and a half years of age. She was soon able to play the
accordion.With her father losing his job in the mid 1930s, the Great
Depression caused financial difficulties for the family. As a result,
the three sisters entered show business as vaudeville performers to
support the family. They began touring in Canada and the United
States. Collectively, they were known as The Three Brodels. As an
attempt to bypass child labor laws at the time, both Mary and Joan
pretended to be older than they were. When Leslie was nine, she told
child labor investigators that she was 16 years old. Joan proved to be
the scene stealer of the three sisters because of her impersonations
of figures such as Katharine Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, and Jimmy
Durante. Coming from a family of Irish ancestry, Leslie was raised as
a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools in Detroit, Toronto,
and Montreal.
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