Joanna Barnes

Intro

Joanna Barnes built a career as an actress and writer, with screen performances that often placed polished manners beside sharp comic edges. Born in Boston in 1934, she grew up in Hingham, Massachusetts, and attended Milton Academy and Smith College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After moving to California, she became increasingly visible in film and television. Her later novels and newspaper work formed a substantial second strand of her professional life, rather than simply a footnote to her acting credits.

Career snapshot

Auntie Mame in 1958 gave her the role of Gloria Upson, the socially assured young woman whom Patrick wants his aunt to accept. Gloria's narrow expectations clash with Mame's outlook, making her part of the comedy's argument about respectability and prejudice. Barnes's performance earned a Golden Globe nomination in 1959 for New Star of the Year - Actress. The distinction is a nomination, not a win. Her ability to make an apparently agreeable social manner reveal something less appealing would also prove useful in another major family comedy a few years later.

The entry point

In Disney's The Parent Trap in 1961, Barnes played Vicky Robinson, the prospective stepmother who stands in the way of the twins' plan to reunite their divorced parents. Hayley Mills played both Sharon and Susan, with Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara as their father and mother. Vicky is an adult obstacle within a story driven by the children's resourcefulness. Barnes gives that obstacle a recognizable social form, making the conflict more specific than a general disagreement between generations. The role became one of the performances most closely associated with her.

Screen identity and style

Barnes returned for the 1998 remake, directed by Nancy Meyers, but as a different character: Mrs. Vicki Blake, mother of Elaine Hendrix's Meredith Blake. Lindsay Lohan played the twins, with Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson as their parents. D23 explicitly connects Barnes's appearance with her role in the original film. The return is a casting link between two versions made thirty-seven years apart, not evidence that she was playing the same woman in a continuing story. Keeping the two character names separate helps preserve the distinction between remake and sequel.

Collaborations and patterns

Her television work is represented here by two contemporary publicity photographs. The 1959 portrait was issued for 21 Beacon Street through the program sponsor's advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson for Ford. A separate Warner Bros. photograph dated January 12, 1960 places her beside Anthony Eisley for Hawaiian Eye. Barnes is on the left and Eisley on the right. These images belong to specific television engagements, not to The Parent Trap, and show another route by which audiences encountered her during the busy early years of her screen career.

Era reflection

The War Wagon in 1967 added a Western to that range. Barnes played Lola in the film starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. AFI records that Joanna Moore had originally been cast in the part, then left for a starring role in Countdown and was replaced by Barnes. The gallery's color trailer frame comes from this production and is distinct from the two earlier publicity portraits. It retains the look of a film promotion rather than presenting an enlarged crop of one television photograph as a later career event.

Legacy and rediscovery

Alongside acting, Barnes published the novels The Deceivers, Who Is Carla Hart?, Pastora and Silverwood. Her nonfiction book Starting from Scratch grew out of the syndicated column Touching Home, and she also reviewed books for the Los Angeles Times. She died on April 29, 2022, at her home in The Sea Ranch, California, aged 87. Her work can therefore be revisited through both performance and prose: the remembered social antagonists of the comedies, the variety of television and film roles, and books written during a career that extended beyond the screen.

Selected screen roles

• Auntie Mame: Gloria Upson — 1958
• The Parent Trap: Vicky Robinson — 1961
• The War Wagon: Lola — 1967
• The Parent Trap: Mrs. Vicki Blake — 1998

A career in pictures

Three distinct images document television publicity in 1959 and 1960, followed by a 1967 film trailer. They are labeled by their actual productions rather than as Parent Trap photographs.

21 Beacon Street publicity (1959)

Joanna Barnes; television publicity portrait

Program publicity dated June 18, 1959; issued through J. Walter Thompson for Ford.

Hawaiian Eye: with Anthony Eisley (1960)

Barnes on left; Anthony Eisley on right

Warner Bros. publicity dated January 12, 1960; a distinct television production.

The War Wagon: Lola (1967)

Lola

Separate color trailer frame from the 1967 Western; not the alternate headshot crop.

Rewatch notes

• Barnes received a 1959 Golden Globe nomination for Auntie Mame.
• She played Vicky Robinson in 1961 and Mrs. Vicki Blake in the 1998 Parent Trap remake.
• She also published four novels and the nonfiction book Starting from Scratch.