Gene Tierney

Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress.

Acclaimed for her great beauty, she became established as a leading lady.

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.

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.

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.

Tierney's society debut occurred on September 24, 1938, when she was 17 years old.

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."

Tierney studied acting at a small Greenwich Village acting studio in New York with Yiddish 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 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).

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 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."

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.

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".

She was the toast of Broadway before her 20th birthday.

The Male Animal was a hit, and Tierney was featured in Life.

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).

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).