Joan Boocock Lee facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joan Boocock Lee
Joan B. Lee with husband Stan and daughter Joan "J. C." Lee in the 1950s
Born	Joan Boocock (1922-02-05)5 February 1922 Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Died	6 July 2017(2017-07-06) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Voice actress, model
Years active	1981–2016
Spouse(s)	Sanford Weiss ​ ​ (m. 1943; ended 1947)​ Stan Lee ​ (m. 1947)​
Children	2

Joan Boocock Lee (born February 5, 1922 – died July 6, 2017) was a talented British-American model and voice actress. She was best known as the wife of the famous comic book creator Stan Lee. They met in New York City in the 1940s when Joan was working as a hat model. Later in her life, Joan became a voice actress, lending her voice to characters in popular animated shows like Spider-Man and Fantastic Four in the 1990s. Many people, including director Kevin Smith, called Joan "Stan's personal superhero" and his "Marvel Muse" because she inspired him so much.

Early Life and Moving to America

Joan Boocock was born in early 1922 in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She grew up there and in a nearby area called Fawdon. After World War II, she moved to the United States. She came as a "war bride," which means she married an American soldier, Sanford Dorf Weiss, whom she had met only a day before their wedding in 1943.

Meeting and Marrying Stan Lee

Before moving to the U.S., Joan Boocock was a well-known hat model. Her first marriage ended not long after she arrived in America.

Interestingly, Stan Lee was supposed to go on a blind date with a different model from the same agency where Joan worked. But when Stan arrived at the agency, Joan answered the door! Stan later said that as soon as he saw her, he felt he had been drawing her face since he was a child, and he immediately told her he loved her.

Stan proposed to Joan after only two weeks of dating. To marry Stan, Joan needed to end her previous marriage. She traveled to Reno, Nevada, which was a common place for quick marriage endings at the time. On December 5, 1947, her first marriage was officially ended, and she married Stan Lee in the very next room!

Together, Joan and Stan had two daughters. Their first daughter, Joan Celia "J. C." Lee, was born in 1950. Their second daughter, Jan Lee, sadly passed away just eight days after she was born in 1953. Because Joan and Stan came from different religious backgrounds, they faced some challenges when they tried to adopt children. In 1949, the couple bought a home in Woodmere, Long Island, where they lived for a few years.

Stan Lee often said that Joan was a big inspiration for his early comic book creations, including the very first ideas for the Fantastic Four. She also inspired the character of Gwen Stacy, who became Spider-Man's second girlfriend in the comics.

Voice Acting and Other Work

In 1981, Stan and Joan Lee moved from New York City to Los Angeles. There, Joan started using her voice for several animated Marvel TV shows in the 1990s.

• She first appeared in the Fantastic Four animated series in 1994, playing a character who appeared more than once.
• She also voiced a computer in three episodes of the Iron Man TV series in 1994.
• Later, she became the voice of Madame Web in the Spider-Man animated series, appearing in eight episodes between 1996 and 1998.

Joan also appeared as herself in several documentaries. In 2002, she was in Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels alongside Stan Lee and director Kevin Smith. In 2003, she appeared in Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked. In 2010, she was featured in a documentary about her husband called With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story. Joan's very last appearance was a small role, called a cameo, in the 2016 movie X-Men: Apocalypse, where she appeared with her husband.

Writing Books

In 1987, Joan Lee wrote her first novel, a book called The Pleasure Palace. Her daughter mentioned that Joan had also finished writing three other novels, but they were never published.

Later Years and Passing

Joan Lee passed away on July 6, 2017, in Los Angeles. She died from problems related to a stroke. Her husband, Stan, whom she had been married to for almost 70 years, and their daughter, Joan, were with her when she died. Although some reports said she was 93 years old, her birth records from England showed that she was actually 95 when she passed away.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Joan Boocock Lee para niños