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Born in Harlem to an Irish father and an Italian mother, Joan became a model after high school, worked for two years in the garment district. Twentieth Century-Fox spotted her picture on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, gave her a screen test, and offered her a contract. She turned it down, but committed herself to acting. "I couldn't live in Hollywood. I'd spend all my time in the pool and believe producers when they said 'I've seen the rushes, baby, and I cried.' "
Die by the Sword. Joan claims to have practically no technique at all ("I can't fake it; if I do I look like the ratfink of the century"). Too old to be a starlet and not yet a star, perhaps destined by her own temperament and whimsy never to be one, she is hovering on the very brink of success. But, like a hummingbird, she hovers confidently. "I've found something to do," she says, "and I want to do it very well, so that when I die and they ask me 'What did you do?' I can be proud of everything. You have to decide, at some point, what you care about. You can't decide five years later, after you're a matinee idol, that you want something else. By then you're Errol Flynn and forever with the sword."
Last week Joan Hackett was offered the female lead in a Harold Prince com edy, slated to open on Broadway this fall. Tentative title: She Didn't Say Yes. Joan, happily, did.