Joan Tompkins(1915-2005)
- Actress
Early in her career, in 1938, Joan Tompkins played opposite Henry Fonda in
a run of plays in White Plains, New York. She later became well known
on radio in the role of Nora Drake. During her long years in radio, she
also acted on Broadway in "Pride and Prejudice", "My Sister Eileen" and
many other plays. Joan met the actor Karl Swenson, "the man of a thousand
voices", in the radio studio and later married him. Later, they moved
to southern California and founded an acting company in Beverly Hills,
with Karl directing and Joan acting. After Karl's death in 1978, Joan
retired into a new career. She established a writing group. She wrote
several books, herself, and was an insightful critic and a voice of
encouragement to the group members, who themselves published many
books. She died on January 29, 2005, at her home in Orange County,
California, at the age of 89, and was survived by four stepsons, their
children and grandchildren.