Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney (
November 19,
1920 –
November 6,
1991) was an
American actress and former fashion model. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is probably best-remembered for her performance in the title role of
Laura in
1944.
She was born
Gene Eliza Tierney in
Brooklyn,
New York, the daughter of Howard Sherwood Tierney and Belle Lavina Taylor. Her elder brother was Howard Sherwood "Butch" Tierney, Jr., and her younger sister was Patricia "Pat" Tierney. Her father was a prosperous
insurance broker; her mother a former
gym teacher.
Gene attended St. Margaret School,
Waterbury, Connecticut, and the Unquowa School in
Bridgeport. Along with her studies, she learned
horseback riding. Her first poem, titled
Night, was published in the school magazine, and writing
verse became an occasional pastime during the rest of her life. She then spent two years in
Europe and attended the
finishing school Brillantmont in
Lausanne,
Switzerland, where she learned to speak fluent
French.
She returned to the U.S. in
1938 and attended Farmington School. On a trip to the
West Coast, she visited
Warner Bros. and was told by
Anatole Litvak she should become an actress. Her coming out party as a
debutante was
September 24, but she soon became bored with society life and decided to pursue a career in acting. Warners wanted to sign her to a contract, but her parents advised against it because of the low salary.
In her first part on
Broadway, she carried a bucket of water across the stage in
What a Life (
1939). That same year, she appeared in the role as Molly O'Day in the Broadway production
Mrs. O'Brien Entertains, and also played Peggy Carr in
Ring Two.
Tierney also worked as a photographic
model in
New York. Photos of her appeared in
Life,
Harper's Bazaar and
Collier's Weekly.
Her father set up a corporation, Belle-Tier, to fund and promote her
career (he went on to steal all of her money), and
Columbia offered her a six-month contract, which she signed. She also met
Howard Hughes, who tried unsuccessfully to seduce her, before becoming a lifelong friend. A cameraman advised her to lose a little weight, saying "a thinner face is more seductive." She then wrote to
Harper's Bazaar for a slimming diet, which she followed for the next twenty years.
The
studio failed to find her a project, however, so she returned to New York and starred as Patricia Stanley in
The Male Animal (
1940) on Broadway.
Tierney was offered the lead in
MGM's
National Velvet, but when the production was delayed she signed with
20th Century Fox. Her
motion picture debut was in the starring role as Eleanor Stone in
Fritz Lang's
Western The Return of Frank James (
1940) opposite
Henry Fonda. A small role as Barbara Hall in
Hudson's Bay followed, released that same year.
|
As Victoria Charteris/Poppy Smith in The Shanghai Gesture |
1941 was a busy year for the actress, as she starred in the role as Ellie May Lester in
John Ford's drama
Tobacco Road, the title role in
Belle Starr, as Zia in
Sundown, and as Victoria Charteris AKA Poppy Smith in
The Shanghai Gesture. In
1942, she played Eva in
Son of Fury, the dual role as Susan Miller and Linda Worthington in
Rings on Her Fingers, the role as Kay Saunders in
Thunder Birds, and Miss Young in
China Girl.
A supporting role in
Ernst Lubitsch's classic
1943 comedy Heaven Can Wait, in which she played the dual role as Martha Strabel and Van Cleve, signaled an upward turn in Tierney's career as her popularity increased.
In
1944, she starred in what became her most famous role as the intended murder victim, Laura Hunt, in
Otto Preminger's masterful
mystery Laura.
After playing Tina Tomasino in
A Bell for Adano (
1945), she played the jealous, narcissistic
femme fatale Ellen Berent Harland, opposite
Cornel Wilde, in the film version of the best-selling book
Leave Her to Heaven - a performance that won her an
Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Tierney starred in the role as Miranda Wells in
Dragonwyck (
1946). That same year, she played Isabel Bradley opposite
Tyrone Power, with
John Payne,
Anne Baxter, and
Clifton Webb, in
The Razor's Edge, an adaptation of
Somerset Maugham's
novel. She followed that with her role as Lucy Muir in
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (
1947) opposite
Rex Harrison, with
George Sanders,
Anna Lee, and
Natalie Wood.
Tierney had two husbands,
costume and
fashion designer Oleg Cassini (married
July 11,
1941, divorced
February 28,
1952), and
Texas oilman W. Howard Lee (married
July 11,
1960 until his death on
February 17,
1981).
She and Cassini had two daughters, Antoinette Daria Cassini (born
October 15,
1943) and Christina "Tina" Cassini (born
November 19,
1948).
Cassini served as a a second lieutenant in the
Army in
World War II, and Tierney was accorded the honor of pinning the regulation gold bars on his uniform. In June 1943, while pregnant with her first daughter, she came down with
German measles, contracted during a
USO tour. The baby, Daria, was born prematurely in Washington, D.C., weighing only 3 pounds, 2 ounces, and requiring a total blood transfusion. Because of Tierney's exposure to German measles, Daria was also
deaf, partially
blind with
cataracts, and severely
retarded. Tierney's
grief over the tragedy led to many years of
depression and bi-polar disorder. Tierney separated from Oleg Cassini, challenged by the marital stress of Daria's condition, but they later reconciled and had a second daughter, Tina. During her marriage to Cassini, Tierney had a romance with actor
Tyrone Power (her co-star in
The Razor's Edge). That came to an end in the spring of
1946. During the filming of
Dragonwyck, she met the young
John F. Kennedy, who was visiting the set that day. They began an affair that ended the following year when Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of his political ambitions. (In
1960 Tierney sent him a note of congratulations on his election victory -- although she later admitted that she had actually voted for
Richard Nixon because she thought that he would make a better president).
.
Tierney gave memorable performances in two classic film noirs,
Jules Dassin's
Night and the City and Otto Preminger's
Where the Sidewalk Ends (both in
1950).
After playing the character of "Teresa" opposite
Rory Calhoun in
Way of a Gaucho (
1952), which was filmed on location in
Argentina, her contract at 20th Century Fox expired. That same year, she starred as Dorothy Bradford in
Plymouth Adventure opposite
Spencer Tracy at MGM, which was followed by her role as Marya Lamarkina Sutherland opposite
Clark Gable in
Never Let Me Go (
1953). She remained at the studio to play Kay Barlow in
Personal Affair, which was released that same year.
While Tierney was in Europe, she began an affair with the charismatic
Prince Aly Khan, but their marriage plans met with fierce opposition from his father, the
Aga Khan. She returned to the U.S., where she played Iris Denver in
Black Widow (
1954), about a woman murderer co-starring
Ginger Rogers,
Van Heflin,
George Raft, with
Peggy Ann Garner.
While playing Anne Scott in
The Left Hand of God (
1955) opposite
Humphrey Bogart, Tierney's long string of personal troubles finally took their toll. She said that Bogart could tell that she was mentally unstable .
Worried about her mental health, she consulted a
psychiatrist, and was admitted to
Harkness Pavilion in New York . Later she went to the
Institute of Living in
Hartford, Connecticut . After some 27 brutal
shock treatments, she attempted to flee, but was caught and reinstitutionalized. (She was an outspoken opponent of shock treatment therapy claiming that it had destroyed large chunks of her memory).
In 1957, Tierney was seen by a neighbor as she was about to jump from a ledge. The police were called and she was admitted to the
Menninger Clinic in
Topeka, Kansas, on
December 25. She was released from Menninger the following year, after a treatment that included, in its final stages, working as a sales girl in a large department store (where she was recognized by a customer, resulting in sensational newspaper headlines).
20th Century Fox offered her a lead role in
Holiday for Lovers, but the stress proved too great. Days into production, she was forced to drop out of the film and was readmitted to Menninger.
Years after the tragedy surrounding her daughter Daria's birth, Tierney learned from a fan who approached her for an autograph that the woman had sneaked out of quarantine while sick with German measles to meet her during her USO tour in 1943. In her autobiography, Tierney related that after the woman had recounted her story she just stared at her silently, then turned and walked away; she wrote that while she did not remember her first meeting with the woman, after that second meeting she would remember her for the rest of her life.
In 1958 she met Texas oil baron Howard Lee; they were married in Aspen in
1960 and moved to
Houston. Tierney loved life in Texas with Lee and became an expert
bridge player. In
1962, 20th Century Fox announced she would play the lead role in
Return to Peyton Place, but she became pregnant and dropped out of the project. (She later miscarried the baby).
Her comeback to the screen was as Dolly Harrison in
Advise and Consent (
1962) co-starring
Franchot Tone,
Lew Ayres,
Henry Fonda,
Walter Pidgeon,
Charles Laughton,
Don Murray,
Peter Lawford, and
Burgess Meredith. A year later she played Albertine Prine in
Toys in the Attic starring
Dean Martin and
Geraldine Page.
Tierney played Jane Barton in
The Pleasure Seekers (
1964) starring
Ann-Margret,
Anthony Franciosa, and
Carol Lynley, then again retired.
She played Lenore Constable, however, in the
television movie Daughter of the Mind (
1969) with
Don Murray and
Ray Milland.
Her
autobiography,
Self-Portrait, in which she candidly discussed her life, career and mental illness, was published in
1979.
Tierney's final show business performance was as Harriet Toppingham in the TV
mini-series Scruples (
1980) starring
Lindsay Wagner. In 1981 she was widowed by the death of Howard Lee after a long and supportive marriage.
Tierney died at age 70 of
emphysema in Houston, Texas, and is interred, beside Lee, in Section E-1 of Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.
She has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125
Hollywood Boulevard in
Hollywood.
*Some have speculated that
Agatha Christie used the
real life tragedy of Tierney and her older daughter to construct her
fictional
plot in
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (
1962), as the
motive behind the murder in the
novel is similar.
*Tierney's second husband, Howard Lee, was married to
Hedy Lamarr from
1953 to
1960.
*Known for her prominent
overbite which was clearly protuberant in The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Gene Tierney*
Gene Tierney at Classic Actresses*
*
Gene Tierney at The Biography Channel*
Sirens Gene Tierney*
Gene Tierney: A Biography by
Michelle Vogel*
Gene Tierney's Gravesite
