As an actress, screenwriter Joan McCall had starred on Broadway as the ingénue lead in Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" directed by Mike Nichols, "Star-Spangled Girl" also written by Neil Simon, and "A Race of Hairy Men" written by Evan Hunter. She starred in the national tours of Woody Allen's "Don't Drink the Water," "Barefoot in the Park," and "Star Spangled Girl." She starred in her first movie "The Devil Times Five," performed in "Act of Vengeance" and "Project: Kill," and starred in the runaway blockbuster "Grizzly." As a screenwriter, she wrote a screenplay about race car driver Shirley Muldowney called "Shirley" which was produced as "Heart Like a Wheel." She has written over 250 scripts for film and television under the name Joan Pommer as well as Joan McCall. She was staff writer of "The Days of Our Lives" (NBC), "Santa Barbara" produced by Bridgit and Jerome Dobson, for New World Television. She became an associate writer for "Capitol," produced by Charlotte Savage for John Conboy Productions, and wrote a six-month story projection for "Search for Tomorrow" for Proctor & Gamble. As associate writer for NBC's "Another World," she wrote two scripts a week for a year and over 20 episodes of "Divorce Court." She co-authored with David Sheldon the sequel to "Grizzly", which was filmed in Europe with George Clooney, Laura Dern, Deborah Raffin, Louise Fletcher, John Rhys Davies, Steve Inwood, Deborah Foreman, and Charlie Sheen. The production was not completed and the existing footage was pieced together crudely and released in 2020. Born in rural Carter County, Kentucky, Joan graduated from Berea College with a B.A. in art and theater. She trained for the theater in New York, acting in summer stock at Gateway Theatre in Bellport, Long Island, where she met her future husband, producer-director David Sheldon. She studied acting with Lee Strasberg in New York, and in Los Angeles with Charles Conrad. On radio, she performed as a regular on Sears Radio Theater for CBS along with many top stars, produced and directed by Fletcher Markle and Elliott Lewis. As a novelist, Joan co-authored the bestseller "When I Knew Al: The Untold Story of Al Pacino" published by Harbor House.
Read moreShow less
Biography from IMDb.
- January 31, 1940 (86)
- Grahn, Kentucky, USA
- Actor and writer
- 5 on MovieCove · 6 credits in all
What are Joan McCall's films like?
Across a limited sample of 4 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Self.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 4
Light 0 · Serious 3 · Dark 1
Grounded 3 · Stylized 1 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 1 · Intense 3
Steady 0 · Shifting 4 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 3 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
Slow burn 0 · Even-paced 4 · Relentless 0
Casual 2 · Engaged 2 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 1 · Affecting 2 · Heavy 1
Resolved 4 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 0
Roles they play
- Heroas Julie in Peopletoys (1974)
Moods and endings
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Joan McCall's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 4 of their 5 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (4).
Subscription and free streaming for Joan McCall's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
6 credits, 5 with a MovieCove page.
Grizzly II: Revenge(1983)
Midcredits score: 1st percentile of all films
Heart Like a Wheel(1983)
Midcredits score: 70th percentile of all films
Project: Kill (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1976)
Grizzly(1976)
Midcredits score: 17th percentile of all films
Peopletoys(1974)
Midcredits score: 17th percentile of all films
Act of Vengeance(1974)
Midcredits score: 26th percentile of all films
Career shape
Star power in the 65th percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 5 titles from 1974 to 2020.
Film career
- 1974Screen debut· Act of Vengeance
How do Joan McCall's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 17th percentile, the median of all 5; across a limited sample of 4 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 22nd percentile for acclaim.
- 50th to 74th1
- 25th to 49th1
- Below 25th3
Shape of the crowd
3 of their 5 titles are Mixed.
- Universally Panned1
- Crowd Pleaser1
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the acting 50/100 in their films, across 4 reviewed titles; fans 61, detractors 40. The element that speaks to their work as an actor.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Joan McCall's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 3 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Joan McCall work with?
People who share at least 2 of Joan McCall's MovieCove titles; David Sheldon shares the most, 3.
- David SheldonShared titles: Grizzly II: Revenge (1983), Grizzly (1976), Peopletoys (1974)See all 3 shared titles with David Sheldon
