Who was Joel Albert McCrea?

Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and westerns, for which he became best known.

McCrea was born in South Pasadena, California, the son of Louise Whipple and Thomas McCrea. On October 20, 1933 he married actress Frances Dee they had three sons Jody, Peter and David.

He appeared in over one hundred films, starring in over eighty, among them Alfred Hitchcock's espionage thriller "Foreign Correspondent" (1940), "Sullivan's Travels" (1941), A number of western films, including "Wichita" (1955) as Wyatt Earp and Sam Peckinpah's "Ride the High Country" (1962), opposite Randolph Scott.

McCrea graduated from Hollywood High School and then Pomona College (class of 1928). There he had acted on stage and took courses in drama and public speaking, while also appearing regularly at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1928 he met Wyatt Earp in Hollywood - later in 1955, McCrea would portray Earp in the film, "Wichita".

McCrea made his final public appearance on October 3, 1990, at a fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Wilson in Beverly Hills. He died less than three weeks later, on October 20, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California from pneumonia, at the age of 84.