Biography for
Joan Staley (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

20 May 1940, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Birth Name

Joan Lynette McConchie

Height

5' 5" (1.65 m)

Mini Biography

Joan Staley was born Joan McConchie on May 20, 1940 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and started taking violin lessons by the time she was three-years- old. Living in Los Angeles, her prodigious talent was obvious and she soon joined a baby orchestra in Los Angeles and, within a few years, became a Junior Symphony performer at age six. She also made her unbilled specialty debut on film as a child violinist in The Emperor Waltz (1948), starring Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine. Her father's business had the family traveling throughout Europe growing up but she later relocated to California and briefly enrolled at Chapman College in the Los Angeles area. Becoming a stunning, statuesque beauty, she re-directed herself back to a career in show business, singing backup on records for Sam Phillips and working as a secretary to make ends meet while appearing in local L.A. stage productions. In 1958, she was approached by a photographer and eventually posed for Playboy magazine, becoming November's centerfold. The attention warranted her an MGM contract and cheesecake bit parts came her way with such movies as Ocean's Eleven (1960) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). She appeared front-and-center à la Raquel Welch as a scantily-clad prehistoric turn-on in Valley of the Dragons (1961), but nothing much came of it. Following her perky love interests in the mediocre western Gunpoint (1966), starring Audie Murphy, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), a pallid Don Knotts comedy vehicle, Joan's career bit the dust after a horse-riding accident. Briefly married to Chuck Staley, her second husband is former Universal exec Dale Sheets. Twins were born to them, a boy and girl, on March 24, 1971. Since then, Joan has been content with family life and other outside pursuits.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Frederick Dale Sheets	(14 January 1967 - present) 3 children
Chuck Staley	(3 August 1956 - 1960) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Playboy Playmate of the Month November 1958

Her second husband Dale Sheets, formerly an MCA-Universal executive, formed International Ventures, Inc., located in Valencia, California, a company for theatrical personal management that schedules bookings for entertainers.

She had a daughter, Sherrye, from her first marriage to Chuck Staley. Husband, Dale Sheets, had 3 children from his first marriage. Joan and Dale have three children: Stephanie, Greg, and Dina. Together they raised 7 children. They now have 10 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild (as of 2003).

An avid consumer activist, she served 2 years as national director of Fight Inflation Together.

Was a Hollywood Deb Star of 1962.

Where Are They Now

(May 2003) Living in California working with her husband's firm (as does her daughter Dina Sheets-Roth). Also serves as a religious counselor to troubled teenage boys.