Before appearing in films as Joan Shawlee, the American actress and comedienne worked as a model and singer. Born Joan Fulton in Forest Hills, New York, on March 5, 1926, she started her film career in the 1940s. She is best remembered as Sweet Sue, the no-nonsense bandleader in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959), and also appeared in his comedies The Apartment (1960) and Buddy Buddy (1981). On television, she was a familiar presence on The Abbott and Costello Show, starred in the short-lived series The Adventures of Aggie (1956–1957), and played Fiona “Pickles” Sorrell, Buddy Sorrell’s wife, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Her ability to make supporting characters distinctive sustained a four-decade career. She died in Hollywood, California, on March 22, 1987, aged sixty-one.
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