Her career prospects improved greatly after her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she received her first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Her Academy Award for Suspicion makes Fontaine the only actress to have won an Oscar for acting in a Hitchcock film.

[2] Her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse de Havilland Fontaine (1886–1975),[3] was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a stage actress who left her career after going to Tokyo with her husband.

[2] Her mother returned to work with the stage name "Lilian Fontaine" after Joan and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland achieved prominence in the 1940s.

Her paternal grandfather, the Reverend Charles Richard de Havilland, was from a family from Guernsey, in the Channel Islands.

[7] Taking a physician's advice, Lilian de Havilland moved Joan‍—‌reportedly a sickly child who had developed anaemia following a combined attack of the measles and a streptococcal infection‍—‌and her sister to the United States.

She was educated at nearby Los Gatos High School and was soon taking diction lessons alongside Olivia.

[13] RKO put her in You Can't Beat Love (1937) with Preston Foster and Music for Madame (1937) with Nino Martini.

She next appeared in a major role alongside Fred Astaire in his first RKO film without Ginger Rogers, A Damsel in Distress (1937).

She was top-billed in the comedies Maid's Night Out and Blond Cheat, then was Richard Dix's leading lady in Sky Giant (all 1938).

[11][13] Fontaine's luck changed one night at a dinner party when she found herself seated next to producer David O. Selznick.

She endured a grueling six-month series of film tests along with hundreds of other actresses before securing the part sometime before her 22nd birthday.

Rebecca (1940), starring Laurence Olivier alongside Fontaine, marked the American debut of British director Alfred Hitchcock.

[16] 20th Century Fox borrowed her to appear opposite Tyrone Power in This Above All (1942) then she went to Warner Brothers to star alongside Charles Boyer in The Constant Nymph.

[17][18] She also starred as the titular protagonist in the film Jane Eyre that year, which was developed by Selznick then sold to Fox.

Her contract with Selznick ended in February 1947 and Fontaine would work exclusively for Rampart apart from one film a year for RKO.

Fontaine also appeared in Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) directed by Max Ophüls, produced by John Houseman and co-starring Louis Jourdan.

[23] At Paramount, she appeared opposite Bing Crosby in Billy Wilder's The Emperor Waltz (1948) then went to Universal for another film for Rampart, You Gotta Stay Happy (1948), a comedy with James Stewart.

Fontaine starred in Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948), with Burt Lancaster, Nathan Juran and Bernard Herzbrun.

[24] She was Bob Hope's leading lady in Casanova's Big Night, then supported Mario Lanza in Serenade (both 1956).

"[31] Fontaine's last role for television was in the 1994 TV film Good King Wenceslas, after which she retired to her estate, Villa Fontana, in Carmel Highlands, California, where she spent time in her gardens and with her dogs.

[33] For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Fontaine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street.

[34] Fontaine and her elder sister, Olivia de Havilland, are the only siblings to have won lead acting Academy Awards.

A large part of the friction between the sisters stemmed from Fontaine's belief that Olivia was their mother's favorite child.

Fontaine won for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion over de Havilland's performance in Hold Back the Dawn.

Fontaine, however, tells a different story in her autobiography, explaining that she was paralyzed with surprise when she won the Academy Award, and that de Havilland insisted that she get up to accept it.

In a 1978 interview, however, Fontaine said of the sibling rivalry, "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!

[49] Fontaine's fourth and final marriage was to Sports Illustrated golf editor Alfred Wright Jr, on January 23, 1964, in Elkton, Maryland; they divorced in 1969.

"Ours was what was known in Hollywood as a 'romance,' – which meant that we slept together three or four nights a week, got invited to parties together, went away together for weekends and sometimes talked about getting married without really meaning it," Houseman wrote in Front and Center, his second autobiography.

[52] While in South America for a film festival in 1951, Fontaine met a four-year-old Peruvian girl named Martita, and informally adopted her.