Joan Katherine Eunson, daughter of playwright Dale Eunson and journalist Katherine Albert, was destined for a life in show business due to her parents' connections in the industry. As a teenager, she divided her time between the Broadway theatrical world and the swimming pools of Hollywood, with Joan Crawford serving as her godmother.
Growing up in an adult world, Joan attended the Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan, but dropped out before her sophomore year when she was signed at 14 years old by Samuel Goldwyn. Despite having no formal dramatic training and limited stage experience, a New York theatre critic's recommendation led Goldwyn to cast her in his next film.
Joan made her film debut as 'Joan Evans' in the title role of Roseanna McCoy (1949),opposite Farley Granger. To avoid age controversy, her parents lied about her date of birth, adding two years to her age. She went on to appear in Our Very Own (1950),Edge of Doom (1950),and On the Loose (1951),the latter of which was written by her parents.
Next, she was loaned to MGM to appear in the Esther Williams musical Skirts Ahoy! (1952),with her voice dubbed by Joan Elms, and then to Universal to play Irene Dunne's daughter in It Grows on Trees (1952). Despite failing a screen test years earlier, she was cast in Skirts Ahoy!, which was produced by Joe Pasternak, who had previously expressed doubts about her acting abilities.
Joan continued to make films, including westerns opposite Audie Murphy, the circus drama The Flying Fontaines (1959),and the noirish crime thriller The Walking Target (1960). She had several TV guest roles before retiring from acting in 1961.
In 1952, Joan married Gerald Kirby Weatherly, a car dealer, in a secret ceremony at Joan Crawford's home, against her parents' objections. The marriage lasted until her death in 2023 and produced two children. After retiring from acting, Joan devoted herself to family life, working as an editor for the Hollywood Studio Magazine and later as director of the Carden Academy in Van Nuys, teaching the classical-based "Carden Method".
