7/24/2023 0 Comments Peggy on andy griffith![]() An operation thankfully restored her hearing (in one ear) in 1962. In the early 1960s, Joanna suffered severe auditory nerve loss (otosclerosis) to the point of having to read lips. She ended the decade with another second femme role in an "A" picture - The Last Angry Man (1959) starring Oscar-nominated Paul Muni as a Jewish doctor and featuring Joanna in a romantic subplot involving married TV producer David Wayne. After Orson Welles gave her a small cryptic role in his classic film noir Touch of Evil (1958), Joanna went on to a secondary femme role in the Audie Murphy western Ride a Crooked Trail (1958) and co-starred as Arthur Franz's fiancée in the cult sci-fi horror programmer Monster on the Campus (1958) with Franz playing a Jekyll and Hyde college professor who turns ape caveman-like thanks to his radioactive exposure. She followed this with second femme roles in both the western comedy Slim Carter (1957) starring Julie Adams and Jock Mahoney as the title country singer, and the romantic drama Flood Tide (1958), which reunited her with Nader. She started out promisingly as handsome George Nader's love interest in the film noir Appointment with a Shadow (1957), directed by Richard Carlson wherein both play crime reporters - he with an alcohol problem. She began as a lovely presence on such TV anthologies as "Lux Video Theatre," "Goodyear Theatre," "Studio One in Hollywood" and "Kraft Theatre," and also found work in top female lead and second lead roles in "B" movies. ![]() A brief, impulsive marriage (1956-1957) to minor actor Don Oreck also occurred during this early career stage. Spotted at a party by a Universal producer, the actress was tested and quickly signed. Around this time, Joanna won a local Georgia beauty contest that would take her straight to Hollywood. She later enrolled at Agnes Scott, a woman's college in Decatur, Georgia (near Atlanta). In 1951, the 16-year-old girl married and divorced another teenager, Willis Moore, and divorced him within the year. When she was too feeble to care, Joanna was adopted locally by a well-to-do family and her name changed from Dorothy to Joanna. When her father died from his severe injuries a year later, 7-year-old Joanna lived with her grandmother. A fatal car accident in 1941 took the lives of both her mother and baby sister. ![]() Born Dorothy Joan Cook on November 10, 1934, in Americus, Georgia, Joanna was the elder daughter of Dorothy Martha (née English) and Henry Anderson Cook III. ![]() Sadly, what began as an exciting Hollywood carnival ride would all too soon careen out of control and turn into a dangerous and tragic roller coaster ride filled with personal and professional ups and downs. Armed with an entrancing whiskey-like voice that complemented her stunning, creamy blonde looks, Southern-bred beauty Joanna Moore had so much going for her when her film and TV career first took off in the late 50s. ![]()
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