While Feud has gone into Joan Crawford's troubled family history before, the April 9 episode, "Hagsploitation," will introduce another person from her past — her older brother. Joan Crawford's brother Hal LeSueur shows up to wreak havoc on the movie star's life in Feud. The character does so in the form of attempting to sell a "stag picture" (that is, a pornographic film) that allegedly features a young Crawford. The cruelty of LeSueur trying to sell this movie to the highest bidder is fueled by resentment toward Crawford — not only because of their familial issues, but because of her success as an actress. Crawford's brother in Feud — and in real-life — was an entertainer who never experienced the same level of stardom as his sister.
Beyond fighting about the "blue movie" Crawford may or may not have been in and referencing Crawford's alleged sexual relationship with their stepfather "Daddy Cassin" and her very strained relationship with their mother, the LeSueur siblings battle in "Hagsploitation" over Hal's career. When Jessica Lange's Crawford goes to confront her sibling, the famous actress finds him working the front desk of a less-than-glamorous hotel. At least according to Feud, LeSueur allegedly blackmailed Crawford using secrets from her past more than once to get money. She is outraged by this in the April 9 episode because she allegedly helped him get work when he first came to Hollywood, but LeSueur evidently didn't think his younger sister helped him out enough as an actor.
He claims she only got him a role as an extra playing a clown in a film and if you look at LeSueur's IMDb page, it appears his acting career didn't get much better than that. According to IMDb, he was in 30 projects and out of those 30, he was uncredited in 27 of them and his scenes were deleted in one. That means he was only give credit for being in two of the 30 projects he did.
The one movie he did do with his "kid sister" was 1937's Mannequin, which starred Crawford and Spencer Tracy. And although he was in films like 1935's Mutiny on the Bounty, LeSueur will always be remembered first in Hollywood as Crawford's brother.
Feud shows there was no love lost between the siblings and Crawford was the antithesis of sentimental when she heard he died in the episode. According to GenealogyMagazine.com, LeSueur did in fact die in Los Angeles in 1963, but the website also notes that he had a daughter named Joan Crawford LeSueur, who became a Broadway dancer. If the story Feud depicts is true, perhaps he named his daughter that to get a part of Crawford's fame for himself — or maybe, just maybe — LeSueur did care for his famous sister after all.
