Joan Dowling

With a fair complexion and a look that fit the post-war British screen, Joan Dowling was a British actress whose career was as brief as it was bright. Born on January 6, 1928, in England, she was raised by her grandmother after being born to an unmarried mother, and she never knew her father. She dreamed of acting but could not afford lessons, so she simply started auditioning. Her stage debut came when she was a teenager, and she earned rave reviews for her performance in the play No Room At The Inn. A talent scout noticed her and offered a long-term movie contract.

Her first film role was in the 1947 comedy Hue and Cry, where she met actor Harry Fowler. They married on September 15, 1951. She continued with small roles in Landfall and Pool Of London, and also worked on radio and in several plays. In 1952, she starred in a London stage production of Robinson Crusoe. But her personal life took a dark turn after she discovered her husband's affair. On March 31, 1954, the twenty-six-year-old actress was found unconscious in the gas-filled kitchen of her West London home. Her death was ruled suicide by asphyxiation, though some relatives believe it may have been an accident, a cry for help rather than a true intention to die. Joan was cremated and buried in London. Harry Fowler remarried and passed away in 2012.