Joan Blackman (born May 17, 1938, San Francisco, California) is an American actress.

Biography

Blackman made her television acting debut as a guest performer in a 1957 series, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, and then appeared in her first motion picture, Good Day for a Hanging, in 1959. She had a significant role in two Elvis Presley films. She played Maile Duval in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii and the following year played Rose Grogan in Kid Galahad. She also appeared with Dean Martin in Career (1959), and played Ellen Spelding vis-à-vis Kreton, the character of Jerry Lewis in 1960's Visit to a Small Planet. She later returned to motion pictures in Max Baer, Jr.'s Macon County Line (1974).

Among her television appearances was her role as Hilary Gray in the 1964 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Ruinous Road." She also made single appearances on Bonanza, I Spy and Gunsmoke.

During the 1965–66 season, Blackman was part of the regular cast of the prime time television serial, Peyton Place. On that show, she played "Marion Fowler," the wife to the District Attorney.

She married black actor Rockne Tarkington in July 1968 during the Civil Rights Movement. They divorced in October 1970. They have two children together. She and her second ex-husband, Joby Baker, met in drama school. She appeared once in each of the television series; Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason and I Spy.