Godspeed Joan Staley

Joan Staley, who starred in such movies as Roustabout (1964) and The Ghost and Mrs. Chicken (1966) and guest starred on shows from Perry Mason to Batman, died on November 24 2019 at the age of 79. The cause was heart failure.

Joan Staley was born Joan Lynette McConchie on May 20 1940 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She grew up in Los Angeles. Her mother took her to a concert when she was only three, which led her to ask her mother for a violin. She was first chair/second violin in Peter Meremblum's Junior Symphony by the time she was six years old. It was as a child violinist that she made her film debut in The Emperor's Waltz in 1948. Her father eventually enlisted in the Army as a chaplain, so that she attended high school in Washington D.C., Munich, and Paris. She attended Chapman College in Orange, California for a brief time before working as a teletype operator at the William R. Stats brokerage firm in San Francisco.

Miss Staley joined the Little Theatre in Hollywood, appearing in productions of The Robe, Brigadoon, and My Sister Eileen. She made her television debut in an episode of Perry Mason in 1958. In the late Fifties she had small guest roles on Laramie, Maverick, Bourbon Street Beat, Not For Hire, The Detectives, and Shotgun Slade. She had bit parts in the movies Bells Are Ringing (1960), Ocean's 11 (1960), and Midnight Lace (1960).

In the Sixties Joan Staley had regular roles on the variety show The Lively Ones, 77 Sunset Strip, and Broadside. She guest starred on such shows as The Tab Hunter Show, Bringing Up Buddy, The Asphalt Jungle, The Lawless Years, The New Breed, Frontier Circus, Bonanza, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Untouchables, Tales of Wells Fargo, 87th Precinct, Hawaiian Eye, The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet, Alcoa Premiere, The Dick Powell Show, The Real McCoys, Wagon Train, The Joey Bishop Show, The Jack Benny Program, Burke's Law, The Virginian, McHale's Navy, The Munsters, Batman, Pistols 'n' Petticoats, Mission: Impossible, Ironside, and Adam-12. She appeared in the movies Dondi (1961), Gun Fight (1961), The Ladies Man (1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's  (1961), Valley of the Dragons (1961), Cape Fear (1962), Johnny Cool (1963),  A New Kind of Love (1963), Kissin' Cousins (1964), Kisses for My President (1964), Roustabout (1964), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), and Gunpoint (1966).

In 1967 she married MCA executive Dale Sheets. In 1969 she and Mr. Sheets founded International Ventures Incorporated, a company for the management of talent. Afterwards she only made two more acting appearances, the first in an episode of Adam-12 in 1972 and the second in an episode of Dallas in 1982.

By her own admission Joan Staley played primarily shapely blondes in tight dresses, but she was capable of much more. On Batman she played Okie Annie, the henchwoman of Western themed villain Shame. In The Ghost and Mr. Chicken not only did she wear a brunette wig, but her role was slightly more demure than many she had played during her career. In one episode of Perry Mason she even played a murder culprit. Of course, it must also be noted that Joan Staley was a talented child violinist as well as a talented actress. She also ran International Ventures Incorporated until last year when her daughter took over. Joan Staley may have been best known for playing blonde bombshells, but she was capable of much more.