After one year in college as an art major Cassidy dropped out and got married, but the marriage didn't last. She moved to San Francisco and worked successfully as a model; she also appeared briefly in two films shot there, Bullitt (1968) and Fools (1970), then went four years without another screen role, meanwhile finding some work in TV commercials. Her first significant screen appearance was in a small role in the San Francisco police drama The Laughing Policeman (1974), which led to work in two more films that year; in the second of these, Bank Shot (1974), she got her first prominent billing. Cassidy had many unmemorable roles over the next few years, finally making an impression in a successful film with Blade Runner (1982); after that she got better roles in better films, but has yet to become a widely known screen actress.
Joanna Cassidy
Active - 1968 - 2021 |
Born - Aug 2, 1945 in Camden, New Jersey, United States |
Genres - Comedy, Drama, Family & Personal Relationships
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Biography by AllMovie
Movie Highlights
Factsheet
- Appeared in a 1973 Smokey the Bear public-service announcement.
- Cold-called casting director Joyce Selznick in 1973 and got a reading for a film that turned out to be The Laughing Policeman; she got the part.
- Was set to star in 1975's The Stepford Wives, but was replaced by Paula Prentiss after two weeks of shooting.
- Had the title role in the 1975 TV-adventure Wonder Woman until director Jack Arnold insisted on handing the part to Lynda Carter.
- Voiced Insp. Maggie Sawyer in the WB's Superman: The Animated Series and the 2002 video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips.
- For the 2007 25th anniversary re-release of Blade Runner: Final Cut, her head was digitally transposed onto that of a stunt performer who had shot the scenes in the original.
- Thirty years after the release of Blade Runner, she teamed with producer-director Tamela D'Amico to shoot a scene of her replicant character Zhora doing an exotic dance with a snake. The scene had originally been choreographed and rehearsed for the 1982 sci-fi film, but was never shot.
- An animal activist, she supports Last Chance for Animals.