Joi Lansing was a popular actress and sex symbol who enjoyed a secret lesbian affair
She was born Joy Rae Brown on April 6, 1929 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her parents divorced when she was a child and her mother remarried. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1940. At the age of fourteen she started modeling. In 1947 she made her film debut in the comedy When A Girl's Beautiful. Joi had brief romances with Mickey Rooney and George Raft. On March 26, 1950 she married Jerry Safron, a sales manager at Columbia Studios. Their union was annulled just five months later. She married actor Lance Fuller in 1951 but they split up after two years together. Joi got bit parts in more than a dozen films including Neptune's Daughter, Singin In The Rain, and The French Line. Her big break came in 1955 when she was cast as a "dumb blonde" on The Bob Cummings Show. It was a hit and ran for four years. With her platinum hair and voluptuous figure she quickly became a popular pin-up girl. The press called her "The Marilyn Monroe of Television". In 1956 she had a leading role in the crime drama Hot Shots. She also appeared in the films Queen Of Outer Space and The Atomic Submarine. Director Orson Welles gave her a small role in his 1958 drama Touch Of Evil. Although she had become a sex symbol she claimed to be a devout Mormon who didn't smoke or drink alcohol.
Joi had a serous romance with Frank Sinatra, her costar in A Hole In The Head. Then in 1960 she married Stanley Todd, a wealthy finance manager. Soon after she became pregnant but her husband insisted she have an abortion. During the 1960s she started performing in nightclubs and recorded an album. She also made guest appearances on TV shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet. In 1965 she and Stanley separated but they remained legally married. As she got older she suffered from depression and became addicted to barbiturates. While making the horror film Bigfoot in 1969 she met twenty year old Alexis Hunter. The two women began a passionate affair. They often went out in public together with Alexis claiming to be her younger sister. Joi was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery. She also began suffering from severe anemia. There were rumors that her cancer had been caused by silicone injections she got in her breasts. Tragically on August 7, 1972 she died at the young age of forty-three. Her girlfriend Alexis was at her side when she passed away. She was buried at Pierce Brothers Cemetery in Santa Paula, California.
