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| Birth Name(s) : Gene Eliza Tierney |
Date of Birth: November 19, 1920 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Howard Lee |
| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Gene Tierney Biography
| With prominent cheekbones and the most appealing overbite of her day, Gene's striking good looks helped propel her to stardom. Her best known role is the enigmatic murder victim in "Laura". She was also Oscar nominated for "Leave Her To Heaven". Her acting performances were few in the 1950s as she battled a troubled emotional life that included hospitalization and shock treatment for depression. |
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Additional Gene Tierney Biography
She was born Gene Eliza Tierney in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Howard Sherwood Tierney and Belle Lavina Taylor. She had an older brother, Howard Sherwood "Butch" Tierney, Jr., and a younger sister, Patricia "Pat" Tierney. Her father was a prosperous insurance broker of Irish descent, her mother a former gym teacher.
Gene attended St. Margaret School, Waterbury, Connecticut, and the Unquowa School in Bridgeport. 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 Brillantmont finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she learned to speak fluent French.
Tierney separated from Cassini, challenged by the marital stress of Daria's condition, but they later reconciled and had a second daughter, Tina. During her separation, Tierney had two romances. The first was with 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 a young John F. Kennedy, who was visiting the set. They began a romance that ended the following year, when Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of his political ambitions. Tierney then reconciled with Cassini, but they were divorced on February 28, 1952. In 1960, Tierney sent Kennedy a note of congratulations on his election victory although she later admitted that she voted for Richard Nixon because she thought that he would make a better president.
In 1958, she met Texas oil baron W. Howard Lee, who was married to Hedy Lamarr from 1953 to 1960. Tierney and Lee were married in Aspen on July 11, 1960 and lived in Houston. She 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.
On February 17, 1981, she was widowed after a long and supportive marriage. Tierney died in 1991 shortly before her 71st birthday, of emphysema in Houston, Texas, and is interred beside Lee, in Section E-1 of Glenwood Cemetery. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.
Tierney also worked as a photographic model in between her appearances on the stage. 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 acting career (he went on to steal all of her money), and Columbia signed her to a six-month contract in 1939. She also met Howard Hughes, who tried unsuccessfully to seduce her, but she was from a well-to-do family and was not impressed by his wealth. However, he became 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.
Tierney gave memorable performances in two classic film noirs, Jules Dassin's Night and the City as Mary Bristol co-starring Richard Widmark and Otto Preminger's Where the Sidewalk Ends as Morgan Taylor with her Laura co-star Dana Andrews (both in 1950).Pin-up photo in Yank, the Army Weekly.
In 1951, she was loaned out to Paramount Pictures and gave a memorable comic turn as Maggie Carleton in Mitchell Leisen's classic screwball comedy The Mating Season with John Lund, Thelma Ritter and Miriam Hopkins. This was also the year Tierney gave a tender performance as Midge Sheridan opposite Ray Milland in Close to my Heart (1951) (Warner Bros.). The film is about a couple trying to adopt. Gene felt this was her best role in a half dozen years, as it touched the chords of her own experience. The film addressed the issue of "nature vs nurture" and opened an early conversation about the adoption process. Later in her career, she would be reunited with Milland in Daughter of the Mind (1969), which has a cult following.
After appearing opposite Rory Calhoun as Teresa in Way of The Gaucho (1952), 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 Never Let Me Go (1953) as Marya Lamarkina opposite Clark Gable which was filmed in England. Gene found Gable patient and considerate, but lonely and vulnerable, still mourning the death of Carole Lombard. She remained in Europe to play Kay Barlow in United Artists Personal Affair (1953), which was released that same year. While Tierney was in Europe, she began a romance with Prince Ali Khan, but their marriage plans met with fierce opposition from his father, the Aga Khan. Early 1953 She returned to the U.S to co-star in a murder mystery as Iris Denver in Black Widow (1954) with Ginger Rogers.
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).
However, she starred in the television movie Daughter of the Mind (1969), with Don Murray and Ray Milland. Tierney's final performance was in the TV mini-series Scruples (1980), starring Lindsay Wagner. |
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