By Bianca Sierra
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Joan Marie O’Brien (February 14, 1936 – May 5, 2025) was an American actress and singer. She made a name for herself acting in television shows in the 1950s and 1960s and as a film co-star with Cary Grant, Elvis Presley, John Wayne, and Jerry Lewis.
Joan O’Brien was born to David and Rita O’Brien on Valentine’s Day 1936, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The family moved to California when O’Brien was a child and enrolled her in dance classes when she was eight years old. O’Brien graduated from Chaffey Union High School in Ontario, California.
O’Brien died following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease on May 5, 2025, at the age of 89.
Along with Sheree North, Sabrina, and Sue Carson, O’Brien appeared in Playgirls in 1961 at the Riverside Hotel in Reno, Nevada.
O’Brien played Elvis Presley‘s girlfriend in the 1963 film It Happened at the World’s Fair.
In 1964, O’Brien guest starred in an episode of The Man from UNCLE. Series star Robert Vaughn subsequently cast her as Ophelia in Hamlet at the Pasadena Playhouse.
After her acting career ended, O’Brien sang with the Harry James band in 1968.
