Joan Mankin — actress, clown
Joan Mankin, one of the Bay Area’s most popular actors and clowns for more than four decades, died Saturday at her home in San Francisco, surrounded by friends and family.
The cause of death was given by her brother, Daniel Mankin, as frontotemporal dementia and muscular neuron disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Ms. Mankin had been diagnosed with ALS and early onset dementia in 2014. She was 67.
“Joanie always led with her heart, and everything she did was bigger than life,” said Jonathan Moscone, who was artistic director at California Shakespeare Theater when Ms. Mankin was a company member. “Emotionally and physically, she was no mere mortal. She defined so much of our theatrical culture, and I was lucky to have worked with her and known her.”
A versatile performer best known for her comic skills, Ms. Mankin was an almost constant presence on Bay Area stages from 1970 through 2013. She appeared in major roles with virtually every important theater company in the region — from the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the feminist Lilith company to American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory and Cal Shakes, and from Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre to TheatreWorks in Mountain View, Walnut Creek’s Center Rep and Marin Theatre Company to the Magic Theatre and San Francisco Playhouse. In her alternate persona as Queenie Moon, she was a pioneer female clown with the Pickle Family Circus and the smaller Make-a-Circus, with which she also taught circus arts to children.
Born May 16, 1948, in Minneapolis, Ms. Mankin graduated from the University of Chicago and received her master’s degree in theater arts from San Francisco State. She burst upon local audiences in 1970 in the Mime Troupe’s “An Independent Female.” As the ingenue, torn between marriage and pursuing a career, she was an eye-fluttering innocent bride subject to uncontrollable eruptions of martial arts moves and feminist aspirations. The tacit promise of the unpredictable was a feature of her work throughout a distinguished career, in roles ranging from Chekhov and Shakespeare to Tom Stoppard and original new works.
“Onstage she was electric,” Jon Carroll wrote in The Chronicle. “She was like some sort of jinni, a supernatural force of some sort. She was dangerous, a bottle of chaos liable to break at any moment.”
Also a director with the Magic and other companies, Ms. Mankin was a tireless advocate for arts education, women’s rights and representation in the theater, peace, social justice and many other causes.
As her struggle with dementia advanced, Ms. Mankin had to withdraw from several roles in which she’d been cast at Cal Shakes and other companies. Her last public performances were in “Wunder-world,” a show she’d created with fellow clown Sara Moore in the fall of 2013. She also appeared at a benefit for her medical costs at ACT in October 2014. The roster of performers — which included Bill Irwin, Geoff Hoyle and Marga Gomez — was a testament to the esteem in which she was held by her colleagues.
At the first Theatre Bay Area Awards ceremony that same year, Ms. Mankin became the first actor to receive a lifetime achievement award.
Ms. Mankin is survived by her husband, metal artist Daniel Macchiarini; daughter Emma Macchiarini, son-in-law Sean Morris and their daughter, Hanna; siblings Daniel, Ruth and Eric Mankin; and eight nieces and nephews. A memorial service and celebration of her life are being planned.
“Joanie always led with her heart, and everything she did was bigger than life.”
Jonathan Moscone, director