Gene Tierney Biography

Set on a career in the theatre, Tierney’s father established a company dedicated to his daughter’s thespian aspirations; by 1939, she was performing walk-on parts on Broadway.

Friends with the stars of the day, she enchanted Darryl Zanuck and he signed her to 20th Century Fox. Appalled by the squeakiness of her voice in her first film 'The Return of Frank James', Tierney started to smoke heavily to lower her voice; the unorthodox method worked but her addiction to cigarettes later caused the emphysema that killed her.

In 1941, Tierney made four films and attempted to marry actor Robert Sterling, but her parents disapproved and they split up. When she met designer Oleg Cassini, her parents again disapproved, so Tierney eloped to Las Vegas, using earrings as wedding rings. Two years later, Tierney contracted German measles while pregnant, and her baby, Daria, was born deaf, dumb and mentally retarded.

Her film career enjoyed continuing success with her for Best Actress nomination for 'Leave Her to Heaven' and, although she did not win, her position as a top Hollywood star was assured. Her success continued into the early 1950s until she was hospitalised for depression in 1955, after a divorce and sucession of failed love affairs. She made no further films for seven years and, on her return, found it impossible to rekindle her earlier success.

She died in Houston from emphysema, weeks before her 71st birthday.