Kim Joy (listed also as Joy Kim) is in only one other film, Blood Alley, also w/John Wayne, in 1955. There is no information anywhere about any other film roles. Would she have done only two films, both with Wayne, then disappear info thin air?
shareI've often wondered about Joy Kim myself. I've been unable to find any information on her beyond her scanty IMDb page.
It's not at all unusual for an actor or actress to have made only two or three or even just one film and then disappear, but the utter absence of any other information on Joy Kim is unusual. Obviously she was a "discovery" of either Wayne or someone at his production company, but whether she was a professional or just someone they felt would be good in those two films, no one seems to know. I kind of suspect she did these two movies as a lark but didn't want to pursue an entertainment career and just left the business. I don't think she would have found a lot of roles forthcoming in the Hollywood of that day anyway.
But it would be nice to know more of her background, and more importantly what became of her. I have no idea how old she was in 1954 but, 60 years later, it's likely (though not certain) she's passed away. I wonder if someone in Wayne's or William Wellman's family knows anything?
Joy Kim was an opera singer, and she played Madame Butterfly in San Francisco. She was still singing opera in 1977 and performing "Madame Butterfly". She received a bachelors degree and masters degree from the University of California, and of course, she had a singing scholarship. She was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. Slote is her married last name.
Update:
She passed away three years ago:
Joy Kim Slote
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Birth: Nov. 24, 1930
Death: Jan. 6, 2011
Family links:
Spouse:
Walter Harold Slote (1918 - 2002)
Burial:
Bovina Cemetery
Bovina
Delaware County
New York, USA
Plot: R14L14G21
The Divine Genealogy Goddess
Wow, shadycady, how did you find all this out? That's great, congratulations.
She does sing in Blood Alley and had a lovely voice so it's not surprising (though I had no inkling) she was a professional singer.
May I suggest you amend her IMDb page to give some of this information?
Again, well done in solving this "mystery". To ask again, where did you find it all?
Incidentally, she passed away four years ago now, as of last week: January 6, 2011, per your information.
I went to the newspaper archives, and I found a few articles about how William Wellman was trying to cast an actress for the part of the Asian young lady, and he was having a hard time finding the right fit. He went to her college and held auditions, and he finally found her. She was training to be an opera singer at USC, and he also cast her in Blood Alley too. After she finished those 2 films, she traveled Europe for the state department in a signing group.
She married Wlater H. Slote in the 1960s, and they had 4 children together. He was a New York intellectual. She still performed opera in the Conecticutt area in the 70s. Her children made an online obituary for her, and somel of her friends mention her opera career. There is not any mention of her acting career though. She probably was a very private person.
I found an obituary for her mother who died in 1967 in California. She went by Joy Kim Slote. She spent some of her childhood in Hawaii and San Francisco. It is difficult to update her imdb page with just newspaper articles, so I usually have another member help me with that. I found out that George Raft was born in 1901, and i had a devil of time trying to get it changed with 10 items of documentation.
I work on genealogy everyday, and I have found quite a lot of interesting things!
The Divine Genealogy Goddess
Ah, since you work in the field of course you would be a thorough researcher.
You might want to start a page about Joy Kim on Wikipedia, which has no entry for her. I've never written anything for them but they seem to be receptive to posting information based on newspaper articles even when they themselves say the information needs sourcing. It would be a good start and a way of getting something on IMDb.
I just looked on Wiki's page for George Raft and found his birth year listed as 1901, with acknowledgments that earlier references all gave 1895. I haven't seen his IMDb page but I'd imagine it'd say 1901 by now. So amending Joy Kim should be possible.
I was the one on George Raft's Wikipedia page complaining about the person who kept changing it back to 1895. His birth record is on Ancestry.com. Thanks for you kind words.
Katie
The Divine Genealogy Goddess
Aha! So it was you!!
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