Joan Weldon Passes On

Joan Weldon, who starred in the science fiction classic Them! (1954), died on February 11 at the age of 90.

Joan Weldon was born on Joan Welton August 5 1930 in San Francisco. When she was only six years old her mother died. It was while she was still a student as Galileo High School that she began singing in the San Francisco Opera chorus. It was following a performance with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera that she was signed by Warner Bros.

Miss Weldon made her film debut in The System in 1953. She appeared in the movies So This is Love (1953), The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953), The Command (1954), The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), and Riding Shotgun (1954) before appearing in Them! (1954). The film did well at the box office and received reasonably positive reviews when it was first released. In the mid to late Fifties she appeared in the films Deep in My Heart (1954), Gunsight Ridge (1957), Day of the Badman (1958), and Home Before Dark (1958).

Joan Weldon also appeared on television. She was both the host and a singer on the show This is Your Music in 1955. She guest starred on the shows The Millionaire, Lux Video Theatre, Cheyenne, Perry Mason, Have Gun--Will Travel, Colt .45, Maverick, Matinee Theatre, and Shirley Temple's Storybook.

For three years she played Marian the Librarian opposite Forrest Tucker as Harold Hill in a national tour of The Music Man. She appeared in the play Kean on Broadway. She also took part in a national tour of Oklahoma! in 1963. In 1964 she appeared at the New York State Theatre/Lincoln Center in The Merry Widow. Miss Weldon retired in 1980.

Joan Weldon was an extremely versatile actress. While she may be best known as scientist Dr. Pat Medford in Them!, she had a long career in musical theatre. On film and in television she played wide variety of roles. In the Perry Mason she played the girlfriend of the murder victim, the mourner in the episode's title "The Case of the Angry Mourner." In the Maverick episode "Plunder of Paradise," she played Grace Wheeler, a widow who tells Bart Maverick about a gold mine in Mexico. Joan Weldon could both act and sing, making one of those rare individuals of multiple talents.