Who is Joan Celia Lee?
Joan Celia Lee was born in April 1950, in New York City, USA. She is an actress, writer, and businesswoman, but perhaps better known for being the daughter of comic book legend Stan Lee. Her father is responsible for helping raise Marvel Comics’ to its current success, creating many of the franchise’s popular characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, and Spider-Man.
Joan Celia Lee (L) and executive producer Stan Lee attend The Los Angeles World Premiere of Marvel Studios’ "Doctor Strange” in Hollywood, CA on Oct. 20th, 2016.
Posted by Marvel Studios on Friday, October 21, 2016
The Riches of Joan Celia Lee
As of early-2020, Joan Celia Lee’s net worth is estimated to be over $50 million, earned through success in her various endeavors, although the biggest source of her wealth has comes through her father’s success who earned over $50 million in net worth with the success of Marvel – after his passing, his wealth was given to Joan through his will.
Life and Career
Growing up, Joan Celia developed a strong admiration towards her father, who was very passionate about his work in comic books.
He loved writing and often studied works of various popular writers of ages past. He also studied acting, and this inspired Joan to pursue a similar craft.
She grew up mainly in Hewlett Harbor, Long Island, New York. She had a younger sister who passed away just three days after birth. Eventually, she pursued her interest in acting, and made her film debut in “The Cool World” in which she had a minor role. The 1992 film starred Kim Basinger, and tells the story of a cartoonist who becomes a part of the world he created. Her next film would be in a small role in the film “The Ambulance” which starred James Earl Jones, and also featured his father in a support role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj8qwA2Pa2k
Afterward, she decided to step away from acting and focus on other things. A few of her recent projects include the photo book “It’s All Love: The Stan Lee Family”. She also helped create the app “Raising My Superkids”.
Father – Stan Lee
Stan Lee was of Jewish descent, with his parents moving to Manhattan, New York City from Romania; he grew up with a younger brother. During his youth, he was inspired by films and books. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School located in The Bronx, and dreamt of becoming a great novelist, taking part-time writing jobs to help reach his goal.
After several successful writing contests, he was encouraged to pursue it as a career. After matriculating from high school, he became a part of the Federal Theatre Project which aimed to help entertainers during the Great Depression. In 1939, he became an assistant at Timely Comics, which would become Marvel Comics in the 1960s. He did serve in the US Army during World War II as a member of the Signal Corps, despite which he continued to serve as the editor of then-Timely Comics. In the beginning, he did various mundane tasks before eventually becoming a comic book writer, his first project as seen in “Captain America Comics #3”. After disputes within the company, in 1949 he became the interim editor of the company.
The Success of Stan Lee
With the promotion, Lee proved that he had a good feel for handling a comic book business, and became the art director as well as the editor-in-chief for the next two decades. In 1972, he became the official publisher for Marvel He wrote various other works as well, different genres apart from the superhero archetype he became known for.
During the revival of superheroes in the 1950s, Lee began experimenting with the stories he wrote, creating heroes with flaws due to their humanity. This led to more complex characters with his first work being the Fantastic Four. Soon, other heroes followed such as Hulk, Thor, the X-Men, Iron Man, Daredevil, and Doctor Strange.
His most successful creation would be Spider-Man who became iconic to a lot of teenagers in a similar situation during his creation. All of the heroes lived within the same universe. Over the decades, Marvel would become one of the top superhero comic companies, creating many stories that would influence modern society.
Later Career and Marvel Today
During the latter part of his career, Lee became less active within his work with Marvel, having hired various staff who also shared his passion for comic books. He became a frequent attendee at comic book conventions. He also helped produce television and film adaptations of Marvel comics, with him being an iconic cameo for most of them.
He was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame and Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, awarded by the comic book industry. He also received the National Medal of Arts in 2008. After officially retiring, he still worked as the public figurehead of Marvel, and pursued creative works up to his death. He passed away in 2018 after battling pneumonia for some period; he was cremated and the ashes given to Joan.
Today Marvel Comics is a part of the much larger Marvel Entertainment which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. With its acquisition by Disney, it also became responsible for the creation of comics of the “Star Wars” universe. Aside from comics, films, and television series, Marvel can also be found through other platforms.
Numerous video games of Marvel characters have been released, and tabletop games are also very popular, including card and miniature games. The theme park Marvel Super Hero Island can also be found in Universal Orlando, and Disney theme parks also began incorporating Marvel since its acquisition.
Personal Life
Joan Celia has never married nor does she have any children. Despite being the daughter of an icon, she has lived her life away from the spotlight. She resides in West Hollywood, California in a home bought by her father during the 1980s. She is active when it comes to philanthropy, and helps with the Stan Lee Foundation which was created to help promote the arts and literacy.