Comedienne Joan Davis was the daughter of a Minnesota-based train dispatcher. A performer in local amateur productions since the age of 3, Joan sang, danced and clowned at summer camps, amusement parks, and small-time vaudeville houses, marrying her straight man Si Willis in 1931. While performing in Los Angeles, Joan strenuously campaigned for an opportunity to appear before the cameras; her first film was the 1935 educational two-reeler Way Up Thar, directed by Mack Sennett and co-starring several members of Buster Keaton's family.
This led to her first feature film, Millions in the Air (1935). After a desultory RKO contract, Joan and her husband returned to vaudeville; she was rediscovered for pictures by 20th Century-Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck, who cast Joan in raucous Martha Raye-like slapstick roles in such films as Sonja Henie's Thin Ice (1937), the Ritz Bros.' Kentucky Moonshine (1938) and Alice Faye's Tail Spin (1939). In 1941, she became a regular on Rudy Vallee's radio program, and was memorably co-starred with Abbott and Costello in Hold That Ghost (1941). During the 1940s, Joan was top billed in several energetic B efforts like Kansas City Kitty (1944) and He Gets Her Man (1945), and was promoted to star of her own top-rated radio series for Sealtest dairy products. After her film career ended with the bottom-barrel Columbia farce Harem Girl, Joan formed her own production company to produce the popular TV sitcom I Married Joan, which ran from 1952 through 1955 on the networks, then seemingly forever in reruns. Co-starring on I Married Joan as Joan's sister was the actress' daughter, Beverly Wills. Joan Davis died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 53, shortly after completing the pilot film for a new TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide. 