Joyce Coad (April 14, 1917 – May 3, 1987) was an American child actress in motion pictures.
Child prodigy Coad's foster father was Raymond E. Coad. By the age of five she became a reader of children's stories on radio station KHJ in Los Angeles.
Film actress Coad moved to Los Angeles at the same time in 1926 that Metro Goldwyn Mayer was searching for a "million dollar baby". She won the contest conducted by the Los Angeles Evening Express. She also received a contract to perform on radio station KNX in Hollywood. Her programs included recitations, songs, and stories.
She performed the role of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter (1926), a film which featured Lillian Gish. Louis B. Mayer chose Victor Seastrom to direct the movie. Drums of Love (1928), directed by D.W. Griffith, is set in the middle of the nineteenth century in South America. Coad appeared in the role of the little sister in a screen production which starred Lionel Barrymore, Don Alvarado, and Tully Marshall.
For some reason, there was a break in her films from 1928 to 1931, after which the number of her film appearances declined. She played the role of Elsa The German Milkmaid in Captured! (1933). In June 1937 Coad was cast in The Deerslayer, which was being filmed by Standard Pictures. She was twenty years old.
Death Coad died at March Air Force Base, Riverside County, California in 1987, aged 70, from undisclosed causes.
Select filmography Year Film Role Notes 1926 The Devil's Circus Little Anita The Scarlet Letter Pearl 1927 Children of Divorce Little Kitty Mother Betty Ellis The Magic Garden Amaryllis Minton, as a child One Woman to Another The Niece 1928 Drums of Love The Little Sister 1931 Blood and Thunder (uncredited) Devotion Elsie (uncredited) X Marks the Spot Gloria 1933 Captured! Elsa the German Milkmaid1934 Woman Unafraid Evelyn
References
External links
Joyce Coad photo from silentsaregolden.com, retrieved 2-13-08.