Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991)[1] was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed for her great beauty, she became established as a leading lady.[2][3] She was best known for her portrayal of the title character in the film Laura (1944), and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven (1945).[4][5]
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Gene Tierney
Tierney's other roles include Martha Strable Van Cleve in Heaven Can Wait (1943), Isabel Bradley Maturin in The Razor's Edge (1946), Lucy Muir in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Ann Sutton in Whirlpool (1949), Mary Bristol in Night and the City (1950), Maggie Carleton McNulty in The Mating Season (1950), and Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955).
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Personal life[edit]
Tierney was married twice. Her first husband was Oleg Cassini, a costume and fashion designer, with whom she eloped on June 1, 1941. She was 20 years old. Her parents opposed the marriage because he was from a Russian-Italian family, born in France.[15] She had two daughters, Antoinette Daria Cassini (October 15, 1943 – September 11, 2010)[16] and Christina "Tina" Cassini (November 19, 1948 – March 31, 2015) who died from ovarian cancer.
In June 1943, while pregnant with Daria, Tierney contracted rubella (German measles), likely from a fan ill with the disease.[15] Antoinette Daria Cassini was born prematurely in Washington, DC, weighing three pounds two ounces (1.4 kg) and requiring a total blood transfusion. The rubella caused congenital damage: Daria was deaf, partially blind with cataracts, and severely mentally disabled. She was institutionalized for much of her life.[15] This entire incident was inspiration for the plot in the 1962 Agatha Christie novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (Christie's official website says about that novel, "The plot was inspired by Agatha Christie's reflections on a mother's feelings for a child born with disabilities and there can be little doubt that Christie was influenced by the real-life tragedy of American actress Gene Tierney.").[17] Tierney's friend Howard Hughes paid for Daria's medical expenses, ensuring the girl received the best care. Tierney never forgot his acts of kindness.[4] Daria Cassini died in 2010, at the age of 66.
Tierney and Cassini separated October 20, 1946, and entered into a property settlement agreement on November 10.[18] Periodicals during this period record Tierney with Charles K. Feldman,[19] including articles related to her "twosoming" with Feldman, her "current best beau".[20] Her divorce from Cassini was to be finalized in March 1948, but they reconciled before then. They later divorced in 1952.[21]
During their separation, Tierney met John F. Kennedy, a young World War II veteran, who was visiting the set of Dragonwyck in 1946. They began a romance that she ended the following year after Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of his political ambitions.[11] In 1960, Tierney sent Kennedy a note of congratulations on his victory in the presidential election. During this time, newspapers documented Tierney's other romantic relationships, including Kirk Douglas.[22]
While filming for Personal Affair in Europe, she began a romance with Prince Aly Khan.[12] They became engaged in 1952, while Khan was going through a divorce from Rita Hayworth.[23] Their marriage plans, however, met with fierce opposition from his father, Aga Khan III.[12]
Cassini later bequeathed $500,000 in trust to Daria and $1,000,000 to Christina.[24] Christina was unable to collect her inheritance, as Cassini's widow Marianne Nestor challenged the sum in court in a lengthy case.[25]
Cassini and Tierney remained friends until her death in November 1991.
In 1958, Tierney met Texas oil baron W. Howard Lee, who had been married to actress Hedy Lamarr since 1953. Lee and Lamarr divorced in 1960 after a long battle over alimony.[26] Lee and Tierney married in Aspen, Colorado, on July 11, 1960. They lived quietly in Houston, Texas, and Delray Beach, Florida[15] until his death in 1981.[26]
Despite her self-imposed exile in Texas, Tierney received work offers from Hollywood, prompting her to a comeback. She appeared in a November 1960 broadcast of General Electric Theater, during which time she discovered that she was pregnant. Shortly after, 20th Century Fox announced Tierney would play the lead role in Return to Peyton Place, but she withdrew from the production after suffering a miscarriage.[27]
As a lifelong Republican, she supported Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in their elections.[28]
Later years[edit]
Tierney's autobiography, Self-Portrait, in which she candidly discusses her life, career, her appearance, and mental illness, was published in 1979.[5]
In 1986, Tierney was honored alongside actor Gregory Peck with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.[29]
Tierney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard.
Early life[edit]
Gene Eliza Tierney was born on November 19, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Howard Sherwood Tierney and Belle Lavinia Taylor. She was named after a beloved uncle, who died young.[4]: 25 She had an elder brother, Howard Sherwood "Butch" Tierney Jr., and a younger sister, Patricia "Pat" Tierney. Her father was a successful insurance broker of Irish descent on his paternal side; their mother was a former physical education instructor.[4]
Tierney was raised in Westport, Connecticut. She attended St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, Connecticut, and the Unquowa School in Fairfield. She published her first poem, "Night", in the school magazine and wrote poetry occasionally throughout her life. Tierney played Jo in a student production of Little Women, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott.
Tierney spent two years in Europe, attending Brillantmont International School in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she learned to speak fluent French. She returned to the US in 1936 and attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. On a family trip to the West Coast, she visited Warner Bros. studios, where her mother's cousin – Gordon Hollingshead – worked as a producer of historical short films. Director Anatole Litvak, taken by the 17-year-old's beauty, told Tierney that she should become an actress. Warner Bros. wanted to sign her to a contract, but her parents advised against it because of the relatively low salary; they also wanted her to take her position in society.[4]: 11–13
Tierney's society debut occurred on September 24, 1938, when she was 17 years old.[4]: 14 Soon bored with society life, she decided to pursue an acting career. Her father said, "If Gene is to be an actress, it should be in the legitimate theatre."[6] Tierney studied acting at a small Greenwich Village acting studio in New York with Yiddish Broadway actor/director Benno Schneider.[7] She became a protégée of Broadway producer-director George Abbott.[6][8]
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Death[edit]
Tierney died of emphysema on November 6, 1991, in Houston, 13 days before what would have been her 71st birthday.[1] She is interred in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.
Certain documents of Tierney's film-related material, personal papers, letters, etc., are held in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, though her papers are closed to the public.[30]
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Career[edit]
Broadway[edit]
In Tierney's first role on Broadway, she carried a bucket of water across the stage in What a Life! (1938). A Variety magazine critic declared, "Miss Tierney is certainly the most beautiful water carrier I've ever seen!" She also worked as an understudy in The Primrose Path (1938).
The following year, she appeared in the role of Molly O'Day in the Broadway production Mrs. O'Brien Entertains (1939).[4]: 19 New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote, "As an Irish maiden fresh from the old country, Gene Tierney in her first stage performance is very pretty and refreshingly modest."[4]: 21 That same year, Tierney appeared as Peggy Carr in Ring Two (1939) to favorable reviews. Theater critic Richard Watts Jr. of the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "I see no reason why Miss Tierney should not have an interesting theatrical career – that is, if cinema does not kidnap her away."[4]: 36
Tierney's father set up a corporation, Belle-Tier, to fund and promote her acting career. Columbia Pictures signed her to a six-month contract in 1939. She met Howard Hughes, who tried unsuccessfully to seduce her. From a well-to-do family herself, she was not impressed by his wealth. Hughes eventually became a lifelong friend.
After a cameraman advised Tierney to lose a little weight, she wrote to Harper's Bazaar magazine for a diet, which she followed for the next 25 years. Tierney was initially offered the lead role in National Velvet, but production was delayed.[4]: 23 When Columbia Pictures failed to find Tierney a project, she returned to Broadway and starred as Patricia Stanley to critical and commercial success in The Male Animal (1940). In The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson wrote, "Tierney blazes with animation in the best performance she has yet given".[4] She was the toast of Broadway before her 20th birthday. The Male Animal was a hit, and Tierney was featured in Life. She was also photographed by Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Collier's Weekly.[4]: 38
Two weeks after The Male Animal opened, Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, was rumored to have been in the audience. During the performance, he told an assistant to note Tierney's name. Later that night, Zanuck dropped by the Stork Club, where he saw a young lady on the dance floor. He told his assistant, "Forget the girl from the play. See if you can sign that one." She was Tierney. At first, Zanuck did not think she was the actress he had seen. Tierney was quoted (after the fact), saying: "I always had several different 'looks', a quality that proved useful in my career."[4]: 38 [8]
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W. Howard Lee(m. 1960; died 1981)
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