Oscar Actors: Tierney, Gene–Background, Career, Awards

Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) Acclaimed for her great beauty, she became established as a leading lady. Tierney was best known for her portrayal of the title character in the film Laura (1944), and was nominated for Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven (1945).

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), Morgan Taylor-Paine in Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Maggie Carleton McNulty in The Mating Season (1951), and Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955).

Gene Eliza Tierney was born on November 19, 1920, in Brooklyn, NYC, New York, the daughter of Howard Sherwood Tierney and Belle Lavinia Taylor. She was named after a beloved uncle, who died young. She had an elder brother, Howard Sherwood “Butch” Tierney Jr., and a younger sister, Patricia “Pat” Tierney. Their father was a successful insurance broker of Irish descent; their mother was a former physical education instructor.

Tierney was raised in Westport, Connecticut. She attended St. Margaret’s School in Waterbury, CT, 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 French. She returned to the US in 1938 and attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut.

On a family trip to the West Coast, she visited Warner, where a cousin worked as a producer of historical short films. Director Anatole Litvak, taken by her beauty, told Tierney she should become an actress. Warner wanted to sign her to a contract, but her parents advised against it because of the low salary; they also wanted her to take her position in society.

Tierney’s society debut occurred on September 24, 1938, when she was 17 years old. 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.” Tierney studied acting at Greenwich Village acting studio in New York with Yiddish and Broadway actor/director Benno Schneider. She became a protégée of Broadway producer-director George Abbott.

In Tierney’s first role on Broadway, she carried a bucket of water across the stage in What a Life! (1938). A Variety critic declared, “Miss Tierney is certainly the most beautiful water carrier I’ve ever seen!” She also worked as understudy in The Primrose Path (1938).

She appeared as Molly O’Day in the Broadway production Mrs. O’Brien Entertains (1939). 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.”

That same year, Tierney appeared as Peggy Carr in Ring Two (1939) to favorable reviews. Theater critic Richard Watts Jr. of the NY 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.”

Tierney’s father set up a corporation, Belle-Tier, to fund and promote her acting career. Columbia signed her to a six-month contract in 1939. She met Howard Hughes, who tried to seduce her; 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.

When Columbia 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 NY Times, Brooks Atkinson wrote, “Tierney blazes with animation in the best performance she has yet given”. 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][page needed]

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.”

Tierney signed with 20th Century-Fox and her debut was in supporting role as Eleanor Stone in Fritz Lang’s Western The Return of Frank James (1940), opposite Henry Fonda.

A small role as Barbara Hall followed in Hudson’s Bay (1941) with Paul Muni and she co-starred as Ellie Mae Lester in John Ford’s comedy Tobacco Road (also 1941), and played the title role in Belle Starr with Randolph Scott, Zia in Sundown, and Victoria Charteris (Poppy Smith) in The Shanghai Gesture.

She played Eve in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942), as well as the dual role of Susan Miller (Linda Worthington) in Mamoulian’s screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers, and as Kay Saunders in Thunder Birds, and Miss Young in China Girl (all 1942).

Top billing in Ernst Lubitsch’s comedy Heaven Can Wait (1943), as Martha Strable Van Cleve, signaled an upward turn in Tierney’s career. Tierney recalled during the production of Heaven Can Wait: Lubitsch was a tyrant on the set, the most demanding of directors. After one scene, which took from noon until five to get, I was almost in tears from listening to Lubitsch shout at me. The next day I sought him out, looked him in the eye, and said, ‘Mr. Lubitsch, I’m willing to do my best but I just can’t go on working on this picture if you’re going to keep shouting at me.’ ‘I’m paid to shout at you’, he bellowed. ‘Yes’, I said, ‘and I’m paid to take it – but not enough.’ After a tense pause, Lubitsch broke out laughing. From then on we got along famously.[

Tierney starred in what became her best-remembered role in Otto Preminger’s film noir Laura (1944), opposite Dana Andrews. After playing Tina Tomasino in A Bell for Adano (1945), she played the jealous, narcissistic femme fatale Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), adapted from best-selling novel by Ben Ames Williams. Appearing with Cornel Wilde, Tierney won Best Actress Oscar nom. This was Fox’ most successful film of the 1940s, later cited by director Scorsese as one of his favorite films, assessing Tierney as one of the most underrated actresses of the Golden Era.

Tierney then starred as Miranda Wells in Dragonwyck (1946), along with Walter Huston and Vincent Price. It was Mankiewicz’ debut film as a director. In the same period, she starred as Isabel Bradley, opposite Tyrone Power, in The Razor’s Edge (also 1946), an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name. Her performance was critically praised.

Tierney played Lucy Muir in Mankiewicz’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), opposite Rex Harrison.

The following year, she co-starred again with Power, this time as Sara Farley in the successful screwball comedy That Wonderful Urge (1948). As the decade came to a close, Tierney reunited with Laura director Preminger to star as Ann Sutton in the classic film noir Whirlpool (1949), co-starring Richard Conte and José Ferrer. She appeared in two other films noir: Jules Dassin’s Night and the City, shot in London, and Otto Preminger’s Where the Sidewalk Ends (both 1950), reunited with both Preminger and leading man Dana Andrews, with whom she appeared in five movies total.[citation needed]

Tierney was lent to Paramount, giving a comic turn as Maggie Carleton in Mitchell Leisen’s ensemble farce, The Mating Season (1951), with John Lund, Thelma Ritter, and Miriam Hopkins.

She gave tender performance as Midge Sheridan in Warner’s Close to My Heart (1951), with Ray Milland. The film is about a couple trying to adopt a child. Later in her career, she was reunited with Milland in Daughter of the Mind (1969).

After Tierney appeared opposite Rory Calhoun as Teresa in Way of a Gaucho (1952), her contract at Fox expired. That same year, she starred as Dorothy Bradford in Plymouth Adventure, opposite Spencer Tracy at MGM. Tracy and she had a brief affair during this time. Tierney played Marya Lamarkina opposite Clark Gable in Never Let Me Go (1953), filmed in England.

In the 1940s, she reached a pinnacle of fame as a beautiful leading lady, on a par with “fellow sirens Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner”. She was “called the most beautiful woman in movie history” and many of her movies became classics.

Tierney remained in Europe to play Kay Barlow in United Artists’ Personal Affair (1953). While in Europe, she began romance with Prince Aly Khan, but their marriage plans met with opposition from his father Aga Khan III. In 1953, Tierney returned to the U.S. to co-star in the film noir Black Widow (1954) as Iris Denver, with Ginger Rogers and Van Heflin.

Tierney had reportedly started smoking after a screening of her first movie to lower her voice, because she felt that she sounded “like an angry Minnie Mouse.” She subsequently became a heavy smoker.

Tierney struggled for years with episodes of manic depression. In 1943, she gave birth to a daughter, Daria, who was deaf and mentally disabled, the result of fan breaking a rubella quarantine and infecting the pregnant Tierney while she volunteered at the Hollywood Canteen.

In 1953, she suffered problems with concentration, which affected her appearances. She dropped out of Mogambo and was replaced by Grace Kelly. While playing Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955), opposite Humphrey Bogart, Tierney became ill. Bogart’s sister Frances (known as Pat) had suffered from mental illness, so he showed Tierney sympathy, feeding her lines during and encouraging her to seek help.

Tierney consulted a psychiatrist and was admitted to Harkness Pavilion in New York. She went to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. After some shock treatments, intended to alleviate severe depression, Tierney fled the facility, but was caught and returned. She later became outspoken opponent of shock treatment therapy, claiming it destroyed significant portions of her memory.

In December 1957, Tierney, from her mother’s apartment in Manhattan, stepped onto a ledge 14 stories above ground and remained for about 20 minutes in what was suicide attempt. Police were called, and afterwards, Tierney’s family arranged for her to be admitted to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. After treatment for depression, she was discharged.

She worked as a sales girl in a local dress shop with hopes of integrating back into society, but she was recognized by a customer, resulting in sensational newspaper headlines.

In 1958, 20th Century Fox offered Tierney a lead role in Holiday for Lovers (1959), but the stress proved too great, so days into production, she dropped out of the film and returned to Menninger for a time.

Tierney made a screen comeback in Advise and Consent (1962), co-starring with Franchot Tone and reuniting with director Otto Preminger.[4][page needed] Soon afterwards, she played Albertine Prine in Toys in the Attic (1963), based on the play by Lillian Hellman. This was followed by the international production of Las cuatro noches de la luna llena, (Four Nights of the Full Moon – 1963), in which she starred with Dan Dailey. She received critical praise overall for her performances.[citation needed]

Tierney’s career as a solid character actress seemed to be back on track as she played Jane Barton in The Pleasure Seekers (1964), but then she suddenly retired. She returned to star in the television movie Daughter of the Mind (1969) with Don Murray and Ray Milland. Her final performance was in the TV miniseries Scruples (1980).[4][page needed]

Tierney married two men: the first was Oleg Cassini, a costume and fashion designer, on June 1, 1941, with whom she eloped at age 20 years. Her parents opposed the marriage, as he was from a Russian-Italian family and born in France. She had two daughters, Antoinette Daria Cassini (October 15, 1943 – September 11, 2010) and Christina “Tina” Cassini (November 19, 1948 – March 31, 2015).

In June 1943, while pregnant with Daria, Tierney contracted rubella (German measles), likely from a fan ill with the disease. Antoinette Daria Cassini was born prematurely in Washington, DC, weighing three pounds, two ounces (1.42 kg) and requiring blood transfusion. The rubella caused congenital damage: Daria was deaf, partially blind with cataracts, and mentally disabled. She was institutionalized for much of her life. This incident was inspiration for the 1962 Agatha Christie novel The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side.

Tierney’s friend Howard Hughes paid for Daria’s medical expenses, ensuring the girl received best care. Tierney never forgot his acts of kindness. 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. Periodicals during this period record Tierney with Charles K. Feldman, including articles related to her “twosoming” with Feldman, her “current best beau”. The divorce was to be finalized in March 1948, but they reconciled before then.

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 when Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of political ambitions. 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.

While filming for Personal Affair in Europe, she began a romance with Prince Aly Khan. They became engaged in 1952, while Khan was going through divorce from Rita Hayworth. Their marriage plans, however, met with fierce opposition from his father, Aga Khan III.[11]

Cassini later bequeathed $500,000 in trust to Daria and $1,000,000 to Christina. 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 battle over alimony, then Lee and Tierney married in Aspen, Colorado, on July 11, 1960. They lived quietly in Houston, Texas, and Delray Beach, Florida until his death in 1981.

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.[24]

As a lifelong Republican, she supported Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in their elections.

Later years
Tierney’s autobiography, Self-Portrait, in which she candidly discusses her life, career, and mental illness, was published in 1979.

In 1986, Tierney was honored alongside actor Gregory Peck with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.[27]

Tierney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard.

Death
Tierney died of emphysema on November 6, 1991, in Houston, 13 days before her 71st birthday.

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.[28]

Broadway credits
Year Title Format/genre Role Staged by
1938 What A Life! Original Play, Comedy Walk on, Water carrier George Abbott
1938 The Primrose Path Original Play, Drama/Comedy Understudy George Abbott
1939 Mrs O’Brien Entertains Original Play, Comedy Molly O’Day George Abbott
1939 Ring Two Original Play, Comedy Peggy Carr George Abbott
1940 The Male Animal Original Play, Comedy Patricia Stanley Herman Shumlin
Filmography
Year Title Role Director Other cast members Notes
1940 The Return of Frank James Eleanor Stone Fritz Lang Henry Fonda Technicolor
1941 Hudson’s Bay Barbara Hall Irving Pichel
Paul Muni
Vincent Price
1941 Tobacco Road Ellie Mae Lester John Ford
Charles Grapewin
Dana Andrews
1941 Belle Starr Belle Starr Irving Cummings
Randolph Scott
Dana Andrews
Technicolor
1941 Sundown Zia Henry Hathaway Bruce Cabot
1941 The Shanghai Gesture Victoria Charteris aka
Poppy Smith Josef von Sternberg Walter Huston
1942 Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake Eve John Cromwell Tyrone Power Sepia tone (sequences)
1942 Rings on Her Fingers Susan Miller (aka Linda Worthington) Rouben Mamoulian Henry Fonda
1942 Thunder Birds Kay Saunders William A. Wellman
Preston Foster
John Sutton
Technicolor
1942 China Girl Miss Haoli Young Henry Hathaway George Montgomery
1943 Heaven Can Wait Martha Strabel Van Cleve Ernst Lubitsch Don Ameche Technicolor
1944 Laura Laura Hunt Otto Preminger
Dana Andrews
Clifton Webb
Vincent Price
1945 A Bell for Adano Tina Tomasino Henry King John Hodiak
1945 Leave Her to Heaven Ellen Berent Harland John M. Stahl
Cornel Wilde
Jeanne Crain
Vincent Price
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Technicolor
1946 Dragonwyck Miranda Wells Van Ryn Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Walter Huston
Vincent Price
1946 The Razor’s Edge Isabel Bradley Maturin Edmund Goulding
Tyrone Power
Anne Baxter
John Payne
1947 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Lucy Muir Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Rex Harrison
George Sanders
Edna Best
1948 The Iron Curtain Anna Gouzenko William A. Wellman Dana Andrews
1948 That Wonderful Urge Sara Farley Robert B. Sinclair Tyrone Power
1949 Whirlpool Ann Sutton Otto Preminger
Richard Conte
José Ferrer
1950 Night and the City Mary Bristol Jules Dassin Richard Widmark
1950 Where the Sidewalk Ends Morgan Taylor (Payne) Otto Preminger Dana Andrews
1951 The Mating Season Maggie Carleton McNulty Mitchell Leisen
John Lund
Miriam Hopkins
Thelma Ritter
1951 On the Riviera Lili Duran Walter Lang Danny Kaye Technicolor
1951 The Secret of Convict Lake Marcia Stoddard Michael Gordon Glenn Ford
1951 Close to My Heart Midge Sheridan William Keighley Ray Milland
1952 Way of a Gaucho Teresa Jacques Tourneur Rory Calhoun Technicolor
1952 Plymouth Adventure Dorothy Bradford Clarence Brown
Spencer Tracy
Van Johnson
Leo Genn
Technicolor
1953 Never Let Me Go Marya Lamarkina Delmer Daves Clark Gable
1953 Personal Affair Kay Barlow Anthony Pelissier
Leo Genn
Glynis Johns
1954 Black Widow Iris Denver Nunnally Johnson
Ginger Rogers
Van Heflin
CinemaScope, Deluxe color
1954 The Egyptian Baketamon Michael Curtiz
Jean Simmons
Victor Mature
Edmund Purdom
CinemaScope, Deluxe color
1955 The Left Hand of God Anne Scott Edward Dmytryk Humphrey Bogart CinemaScope, Deluxe color
1962 Advise & Consent Dolly Harrison Otto Preminger
Henry Fonda
Walter Pidgeon
Franchot Tone
Panavision
1963 Toys in the Attic Albertine Prine George Roy Hill
Dean Martin
Geraldine Page
1963 Las cuatro noches de la luna llena Sobey Martin Dan Dailey English title: Four Nights of the Full Moon
1964 The Pleasure Seekers Jane Barton Jean Negulesco

Television credits

1947 The Sir Charles Mendl Show Herself Host: Sir Charles Mendl
1953 Toast of the Town Herself Host: Ed Sullivan Episode #6.33
1954 26th Academy Awards Herself Host: Donald O’Connor, Fredric March Presenter: Costume Design Awards
1957 What’s My Line? Herself Host: John Charles Daly Episode: August 25, Mystery guest
1960 General Electric Theater Ellen Galloway Host: Ronald Reagan Episode: “Journey to a Wedding”
1969 The F.B.I. Faye Simpson Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Episode: “Conspiracy of Silence”
1969 Daughter of the Mind Lenore Constable Ray Milland TV movie
1974 The Merv Griffin Show Herself Host: Merv Griffin
1979 The Merv Griffin Show Herself Host: Merv Griffin
1980 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Herself Host: Johnny Carson
1980 The Mike Douglas Show Herself Host: Mike Douglas
1980 Dinah! Herself Host: Dinah Shore
1980 Scruples Harriet Toppington Lindsay Wagner TV miniseries
1999 Biography Herself (archive material) Host: Peter Graves “Gene Tierney: A Shattered Portrait”, biographical documentary, March 26