Joan Benny, though born in New York, was raised in Beverly Hills. Her parents moved West when "it was ascertained that radio was here to stay." Her young life was alternately glamorous (her neighbors were Lucy and Desi, Hedy Lamarr and the James Stewarts) and ordinary (she attended the local public school.) Then came Chadwick, a private boarding school where the student body ranged from San Pedro scholarship pupils to Christina Crawford. At Stanford University, Ms. Benny started out a math major but ended up majoring in economics, although she says she still can't balance her checkbook. After Stanford, she moved to New York, where she modeled and acted, today claiming that these brief careers are best forgotten. She was a game/talk show panelist, which she considers a brief improvement, and appeared irregularly on "To Tell The Truth", "Password" and "Leave It To The Girls."

Marriage and children brought her back to California. Over the next 25 years, Ms. Benny taught 8th grade remedial math, worked for a public relations firm, where her job was to spread the news for three weeks that The Jack Benny show had been switched from its traditional Sunday night slot to Tuesday. Then for four years she was the assistant to the Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at U.C.L.A., and was involved in many charities. She has been a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society, a national co-chairperson of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, served on the Board of Directors of the Exceptional Children's Foundation, and, for the entire 25 years up to the present, has been a member of SHARE, Inc., a Los Angeles-based charity dedicated to aiding the mentally retarded.

She is proudest of her four children; Michael, a doctor who attended Stanford and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons; Maria, who started at Vassar, then began her own very successful word-processing business, sold it, and is now at the University of Colorado completing her education; Robert, a computer science major at Brown University and a licensed pilot; and Joanna, an African Studies major at Duke University, who, in her spare time, works at Duke's Primate Center, teaches aerobics and speaks Swahili to anyone who will listen.

Over the past few years, with children gone, Ms. Benny has taken on new and exciting projects, such as lectures across the nation on the topics of "Growing Up in Hollywood" and "The Psychology of Humor." She is on the faculty of the Aspen Film Conference as a film historian, where she teaches a three-week, fifteen-session college accredited course entitled "The Evolution of Film Comedy." The course is a comparative study of acting, writing and directorial techniques from 1920 to the present, with an emphasis on comedy as a reflection of history and society.

In her spare time, when she is not visiting children, researching old films, teaching, lecturing or working for SHARE, Ms. Benny works on a book about life with her remarkable father during the great, glamorous days of Hollywood.

In 1990, "Sunday Nights At Seven", the autobiography that Jack had started and Joan added to, was published, and while on the book tour, she appeared onEntertainment Tonight, The Larry King Show and on KNBR.

And in February 1991, Joan was interviewed by the Manhatten Radio Club.

The pride of the Benny household celebrated her first birthday Monday June 17, 1935.

Gossip And Trivia

May, 1951 - 17 year old Joan is dating Vic Damone. They were introduced by Jane Wyman while in Palm Springs.

Adopted daughter of Jack and Mary

Occasional stand in for Mary

Married Seth Baker at Beverly Hills Hotel March 9, 1954

Spouse:

Baker, Seth 9 March 1954 - 1955 (Divorced, 1 child)

Rudolph, Buddy March 1956 - 1959 (Divorced, 1 child)

Blufome, Bob (1963 -- ?) 2 children

Joanna (nee Blumofe, Jack Benny's fourth grandchild) and Brad Meiseles had their third child on December 10,2002. The new addition is Justin Michael.

Joanna's oldest son is named Benjamin, in memory of her grandfather.

Bobby Blumofe (Jack Benny's third grandchild) and Cynthia Breazeal have set a date in June 2003 for their wedding. Cynthia is a professor at MIT, working at the Media Lab on social robots.

Maria Rudolph (b 1957 --)

Michael Baker (b -- -- )

Wrote the book "Sunday Nights At Seven"