 In 1981, Dunaway played the title role in "Evita Peron", a television miniseries based on the life of the famed First Lady of Argentina.That same year, Dunaway portrayed actress Joan Crawford in the adaptation of her daughter Christina's controversial memoirs, "Mommie Dearest", in which she had depicted her adoptive mother as an abusive tyrant, who only adopted her four children to promote her acting career, making quite a stir as the first celebrity tell-all book.Dunaway accepted the role after meeting producer Frank Yablans and director Frank Perry, who both assured her that they wanted to tell the real story of Joan Crawford and not just a tabloid version of her life.