Linda Darnell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Linda Darnell
Darnell c. 1940s
Born	Monetta Eloyse Darnell (1923-10-16)October 16, 1923 Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Died	April 10, 1965(1965-04-10) (aged 41) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place	Union Hill Cemetery, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1939–1965
Spouse(s)	Peverell Marley ​ ​ (m. 1943; div. 1951)​ Phillip Liebmann ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1955)​ Merle Roy Robertson ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1963)​
Children	1

Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell; October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American actress. Darnell progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theater and film. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big-budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She co-starred with Tyrone Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Early life

Darnell was born in Dallas, Texas, as one of four children (excluding her mother's two children from an earlier marriage) to postal clerk Calvin Roy Darnell and the former Margaret "Pearl" Brown. One of her maternal great-grandparents was Cherokee. She was the younger sister of Undeen and the older sister of Monte Maloya and Calvin Roy, Jr.. Her parents were not happily married, and she grew up as a shy and reserved girl in a house of domestic turmoil. Starting at an early age, her mother, Pearl, had big plans for Darnell in the entertainment industry. She believed that Linda was her only child with potential as an actress and ignored the rearing of her other children.

According to her siblings, Darnell enjoyed the limelight and shared her mother's dream. Darnell once said, "Mother really shoved me along, spotting me in one contest after another. I had no great talent, and I didn't want to be a movie star particularly, but Mother had always wanted it for herself, and I guess she attained it through me." One elocution teacher recalled: "[Darnell] didn't stand out particularly, except that she was so sweet and considerate. In her theater work, she wasn't outstanding, but her mother was right behind her everywhere she went."

Unlike her husband, Pearl had a notorious reputation in the neighborhood of being "aggressive" or "downright mean." Despite some financial problems, Darnell insisted that she had had a joyful childhood and loving parents. Darnell was a model by the age of 11 and was acting on the stage by the age of 13. She initially started modeling to earn money for the household and performed mostly in beauty contests.

Before leaving school for Hollywood, Darnell was a student at Sunset High School, which she entered in September 1937, majoring in Spanish and art. She did not have a lot in common with her peers and usually spent her time at home as a teen, working under the guidance of her mother. In 1936, she entered the Dallas Little Theater and was cast in the southwestern premiere of Murder in the Cathedral. The same year, she was hired as one of the hostesses at the Texas Centennial Exposition.

In November 1937, a talent scout for 20th Century Fox arrived in Dallas looking for new faces. Encouraged by her mother, Darnell met him, and after a few months he invited her for a screen test in Hollywood. Arriving in California alongside Mary Healy and Dorris Bowdon in February 1938, Darnell initially was rejected by film studios and was sent home because she was declared "too young."

Career beginnings

Although originally wanting to become an actress on the stage, Darnell was featured in a Gateway to Hollywood talent search and initially landed a contract at RKO Pictures. There was no certainty, though, and she soon returned to Dallas. When 20th Century-Fox offered her a part, Darnell wanted to accept, but RKO was unwilling to release her. Nevertheless, by age 15 she was signed to a contract at 20th Century-Fox and moved to a small apartment in Hollywood all alone on April 5, 1939. With production beginning in April 1939, she was featured in her first film, Hotel for Women (1939), which had newspapers immediately hailing her as the newest star of Hollywood. Loretta Young was originally assigned to play the role, but she demanded a salary which the studio would not give her. Darryl F. Zanuck instead cast Darnell "because he felt that the name would advertise her beauty and suggest a Latin quality that matched her coloring."

Although only 15 at the time, Darnell posed as a 17-year-old and was listed as 19 years old by the studio. According to columnist Louella O. Parsons, Darnell was "so young, so immature and so naive in her ideas" and was very loyal to her boss, Darryl F. Zanuck. Her true age came out later in 1939, and she became one of the few actresses under the age of 16 to serve as leading ladies in films. While working on Hotel for Women, Darnell was cast alongside Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert in Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) in June 1939. She was later replaced because the studio felt her role was not important enough. In an interview during production of Hotel for Women, which lasted until June, Darnell admitted that movie making was not what she expected: "I'm learning what really hard work is. At home in Dallas I used to sprawl on the lawn and dream about the nice, easy time the screen stars must be having in Hollywood, but the last two months have taught me quite another story."

Since the beginning of her career at 20th Century-Fox, Darnell had been very positive about her frequent co-star Tyrone Power. In a 1939 interview, she expressed her interest in starring opposite Power in Johnny Apollo (1940). Rationalizing why she was not cast, Darnell said: "It's a man's part and the girl's role is only incidental." Dorothy Lamour was cast, instead. Nevertheless, Darnell had her way, as she was assigned to the female lead opposite Power in the light romantic comedy Day-Time Wife (1939). Although the film received only slightly favorable reviews, Darnell's performance was received positively, with one critic saying: "Despite her apparent youth, [Darnell] turns in an outstanding performance when playing with popular players." Another critic wrote: "little Linda is not only a breath-taking eyeful, but a splendid actress, as well." Life magazine stated that Darnell appeared to be 22 and was "the most physically perfect girl in Hollywood". Following the film's release, she was cast in the drama comedy Star Dust in December 1939. The film was hailed as one of the "most original entertainment idea[s] in years" and boosted Darnell's popularity, who was nicknamed "Hollywood's loveliest and most exciting star". Variety said: "Miss Darnell displays a wealth of youthful charm and personality that confirms studio efforts to build her to a draw personality." Her studio contract had been revised to allow Darnell to earn $200 a week.

Stardom

After appearing in several small films, Darnell was cast in her first big-budget film in May 1940, appearing again opposite Tyrone Power in Brigham Young (1940), which was shot on location in mid 1940 and was regarded as the most expensive film 20th Century Fox had yet produced. Darnell and Power were cast together for the second time owing to the box office success of Day-Time Wife, and they became a highly publicized onscreen couple, which prompted Darryl F. Zanuck to add 18 more romantic scenes to Brigham Young. The film's director, Henry Hathaway, in later life had only slight memories of Darnell but recalled that "a sweeter girl never lived." By June 1940, shortly after completing Brigham Young, Darnell earned "a weekly salary larger than most bank officials."

In the summer of 1940, Darnell began working on The Mark of Zorro (1940), in which she again co-starred as Power's sweetheart in a role for which Anne Baxter was previously considered. A big-budget adventure film that was raved over by the critics, The Mark of Zorro was a box office sensation and did much to enhance Darnell's star status. Afterwards, she was paired with Henry Fonda for the first time in the western Chad Hanna (1940), her first Technicolor film. The film received only moderate attention, unlike Darnell's next film, Blood and Sand (1941), which was shot on location in Mexico and in which she was reunited with Power. It was the first film for which she was widely critically acclaimed. Nevertheless, Darnell later claimed that her downfall began after Blood and Sand.

The studio was unable to find Darnell suitable roles. In late 1940, Fox chose her for the main role in Song of the Islands (1942), a Hawaiian musical film which eventually starred Betty Grable. After Blood and Sand, she was set to co-star with Claudette Colbert in Remember the Day (1941), but another actress was eventually cast. Meanwhile, she was considered for the female lead in Swamp Water (1941), but Anne Baxter was later assigned the role. Darnell was disappointed and felt rejected; she later said: "Right under your very nose someone else is brought in for that prize part you wanted so terribly." Months passed by without any work, and in August 1941 she was cast in a supporting role in the musical Rise and Shine (1941). The film was a setback in her career, and she was rejected for a later role because she refused to respond to Darryl F. Zanuck's advances. Instead, she contributed to the war effort, working for the Red Cross and selling war bonds. She was also a regular at the Hollywood Canteen.

Professional setbacks

In early 1942, Darnell filmed The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe, another film that would not do much to advance her career. Meanwhile, she realized that Darryl F. Zanuck had lost interest in her, and she was overlooked for most film roles that suited her. Instead, she was cast in roles that she loathed, including the musical Orchestra Wives (1942). Zanuck insisted that she take the role, but she was replaced by Ann Rutherford after 12 days of shooting. The press reported that "Linda Darnell and Twentieth Century-Fox aren't on the best of terms at the moment." As a punishment, she was loaned out to another studio for a supporting role in a B movie called City Without Men (1943). According to co-star Rosemary DeCamp, Darnell nevertheless was "very polite", and she was satisfied to work at a studio which did not treat her as a child. In April 1943, she was put on suspension, which meant being replaced in the Technicolor musical film The Gang's All Here (1943). By this time, Darnell had eloped, which caused Zanuck to be even more furious.

In 1943, she was cast, uncredited, as the Virgin Mary in The Song of Bernadette. By late 1943, Darnell was fed up with critics only praising her beauty rather than her acting abilities. Judging her performance in Sweet and Low-Down (1944), in which she co-starred with Lynn Bari, one critic of the Los Angeles Examiner wrote, "Lynn comes off the best because she has more of a chance to shine. Linda just doesn't have enough to do—but looks beautiful doing it." Darnell was reduced to second leads and was overlooked for big-budget productions. Matters changed when she was named one of the four most beautiful women in Hollywood along with Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, and Gene Tierney in a 1944 edition of Look. Afterwards, the studio allowed her to be loaned out for the lead in Summer Storm.

In 1945, she played in Hangover Square, which beame a great success. In January 1945, she was added to the cast of the film noir Fallen Angel (1945), which also included Dana Andrews and Alice Faye. Despite suffering from the "terrifying" director Otto Preminger, Darnell completed the film and was praised by reviewers so widely that there was even talk of an Oscar nomination. Because of her success in Fallen Angel, she was cast opposite Tyrone Power in Captain from Castile in December 1945 on the insistence of Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Although she looked forward to the film project, believing it would be her most important to date, she was later replaced by newcomer Jean Peters owing to scheduling conflicts, a decision she resented.

In 1946, Darnell filmed two pictures simultaneously, the expensively budgeted Anna and the King of Siam and Preminger's Centennial Summer. During the release of the latter, she was on location in Monument Valley for the filming of the John Ford Western My Darling Clementine (1946), playing a role for which she lost 12 pounds. She was assigned to a negligible role by Zanuck, which displeased Ford, who felt that she was not suitable.

Renewed success

From A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

In 1946, Darnell won the starring role in the highly anticipated movie Forever Amber, based on a bestselling historical novel that was denounced as being immoral at that time. The character Amber was so named because of her hair color, and this is the only major film in which Darnell—normally known for her raven hair and somewhat Latin looks—appears as a redhead. It was the most expensive film so far produced by Fox, and publicity at the time compared the novel to Gone with the Wind. Darnell replaced British actress Peggy Cummins in July 1946 at a cost of $350,000. Because $1 million had already been spent on production costs when Darnell was brought in, the pressure was intense to make the film a financial success. Her casting was a result of a campaign for stronger roles. Regardless, she was surprised to find out that she had been cast, because she had been intensively rehearsing for Captain from Castile at the time. Although she had to give up that role and work with Otto Preminger, she was delighted to play the title role and thought she was "the luckiest girl in Hollywood."

The search for the actress to portray Amber, a beauty who uses men to make her fortune in 17th century England, was modeled on the extensive process that led to the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara. Production demanded a lot from Darnell. She was again put on a diet and was assigned to a voice coach to learn how to speak with an English accent. In addition, she spent hours in fittings for costume changes.

Darnell worked long hours at the studio during filming, and according to her older sister she started loathing Preminger, which did not ease production. This and the heavy dieting resulted in exhaustion and a serious illness in November 1946. Her shooting schedule lasted until March 1947, and she collapsed on the set twice. Forever Amber did not live up to its hype, and although it became a success at the box office, most reviewers agreed that the film was a disappointment. Darnell was disappointed in the film's reception; it did not gain her the recognition she desired.

The following year, Darnell portrayed Daphne de Carter in the Preston Sturges' comedy Unfaithfully Yours (1948), also starring Rex Harrison, and was then rushed into production as one of the three wives in the comedy/drama A Letter to Three Wives (1949). Darnell's hard-edged performance in the latter won her unanimous acclaim and the best reviews of her career. Darnell became one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood, and she now had the freedom to select her own roles. She longed for the leading role in the controversial film Pinky (1949), but Zanuck feared that her character would be compared to Amber by the audience, and A Letter to Three Wives co-star Jeanne Crain was cast instead.

Darnell had been widely expected to win an Academy Award nomination for A Letter to Three Wives; when this did not happen, her career began to wane. She was cast opposite Richard Widmark and Veronica Lake in Slattery's Hurricane (1949), which she perceived as a step down from the level she had reached with A Letter to Three Wives, though it did well at the box office.

Later career

Aside from her co-starring role opposite Richard Widmark, Stephen McNally and Sidney Poitier in the noir No Way Out (1950), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which she later called "the only good picture I ever made," her later films were rarely noteworthy, and her appearances were increasingly sporadic. Further hampering Darnell's career was the actress's weight gain. Her next film was a Western, Two Flags West (1950). Due to her allergy to horses, she loathed making Westerns, and in addition to her complaints about her "colorless" role, she disliked her co-stars Joseph Cotten and Cornel Wilde. She was even less enthusiastic about her next film, The 13th Letter (1951), which reunited her with Preminger, and she only took the role because it was an unglamorous one. Shortly after its release, she was put on suspension for refusing a role in the film The Guy Who Came Back (1951) opposite Paul Douglas and Joan Bennett because it felt "too similar." She later consented to take on the glamor role, but she refused to bleach her hair for it.

On March 21, 1951, Darnell signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox that allowed her to become a freelance actress. Her first film outside 20th Century-Fox was The Lady Pays Off for Universal-International (1951) after Douglas Sirk requested her for the lead role. She was responsible for putting the film behind schedule because on the fifth day of shooting she learned that Ivan Kahn, the man responsible for her breakthrough, had died. After The Lady Pays Off, Darnell headed the cast of Saturday Island (1952), which was filmed on location in Jamaica in late 1951. There, Darnell fell ill and had to be quarantined for several weeks. Because her contract required her to make one film a year for the studio, she reported to the 20th Century-Fox lot in March 1952 and was cast in the film noir Night Without Sleep (1952). It was the only time that she had to live up to this part of her contract, although she was released from it in September 1952.

This news initially excited Darnell because it permitted her to focus on her film career in Europe.

Darnell and Robert Newton in Blackbeard the Pirate

Before traveling to Italy for a two-picture deal with Giuseppe Amato, Darnell was rushed into the production of Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), which—much to Darnell's distress—got far behind schedule. She arrived in Italy in August 1952 and started filming Angels of Darkness (1954) in February of the next year. The second collaboration proved disastrous, and the next film was never released in the United States. Owing to a delay in the middle of production, she was sent back to Hollywood and there accepted an offer from Howard Hughes to star in RKO's 3-D film Second Chance (1953), filmed in Mexico. Afterwards, she flew back to Rome to complete Angels of Darkness, in which she spoke Italian. Upon returning to New York, she was under the misunderstanding that she would portray the title role in Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954), believing that the role could carry her to dramatic heights. Through trade papers, she learned that Ava Gardner assumed the part.

Because of her then-husband, Philip Liebmann (grandson of Charles Liebmann of Rheingold Breweries), Darnell put her career on hiatus. She returned to 20th Century-Fox in August 1955, by which time the studio had entered the television field. Darnell was eager to appear on Ronald Reagan's General Electric Theater. In 1958, Darnell appeared in the episode "Kid on a Calico Horse" of NBC's Cimarron City along with a cast of other guest stars, including Edgar Buchanan. That same year, she held the guest-starring title role in "The Dora Gray Story" on NBC's Wagon Train.

In addition to television, Darnell returned to the stage. Her last work as an actress was in a stage production in Atlanta in early 1965. (At the time of her death a few months later, she was preparing to perform in another play.)

Personal life

Since Darnell was underage when she arrived in Hollywood, she was tutored on set. She planned on attending graduation ceremonies at Sunset High School, but she was excluded from them and instead graduated from University High School in 1941. Her work schedules prohibited her from enrolling in a university. She is a Member of the Sunset High School Hall of Fame.

In 1940, during the shooting of Star Dust, Darnell for a short time dated teen idol Mickey Rooney. Her first love was Jaime Jorba, an Hispanic youth whom she met while still in high school. They met again during production of Blood and Sand, but they drifted apart when Jorba announced he could not marry a girl who was in the public eye. Starting at age 17, Darnell dated her publicity agent, Alan Gordon, whom she allegedly married in a double wedding with Lana Turner and Joseph Stephen Crane on July 17, 1942. The report turned out to be false, and over the years Darnell became known as "filmland's most eligible bachelorette." Up to 1942, she dated Kay Kyser, Eddie Albert, George Montgomery, and Jackie Cooper, among others. At one point, she was set to elope with talent agent Vic Orsatti, only to report later that she was "concentrating on [her] career."

Although a well-loved figure on the 20th Century-Fox lot among the cast, crew, and lot workers, it was reported that Darnell made only one good friend in Hollywood, actress-singer Ann Miller, whom she met at a Catalina Island benefit. During her stay in Hollywood, her relationship with her mother, Pearl, worsened, as her mother was an unpopular figure on the lot because of her overbearing and possessive behavior. Following an intense fight between her parents in 1942, Darnell left home with her younger sister Monte and never returned.

On April 18, 1943, at age 19, Darnell eloped with 42-year-old cameraman Peverell Marley in Las Vegas. Most friends and relatives, including her parents, and 20th Century-Fox disapproved of the marriage, and Darnell was believed to look at Marley more as a father figure than as a romantic interest.

Because Darnell and Marley were unable to have children, they adopted a daughter in 1948, Charlotte Mildred "Lola" Marley (born January 5, 1948), the actress's only child. She also planned to adopt a boy within a few years, but nothing ever came of it.

On July 19, 1950, Darnell reportedly separated from her husband. Darnell was granted a divorce and custody of Charlotte, while Marley was to pay $75 a month for child support.

She married brewery heir Philip Liebmann in February 1954. Darnell resorted to charity work, opening facilities accommodating 30 girls in the neighborhood of Rome in 1955. Liebmann attempted to save the marriage by adopting a baby named Alfreda, but the marriage ended nevertheless on grounds of incompatibility, and Liebmann kept the girl.

Darnell was married to pilot Merle Roy Robertson from 1957 to 1963. In 1963, Darnell was granted a divorce from Robertson. She was promised alimony of $350 monthly until July 15, 1964, and then $250 until September 15, 1967.

Death

Darnell died on April 10, 1965 from burns that she had received in a house fire in Glenview, Illinois early the day before. She had been staying at the home of her former secretary and the secretary's daughter and had just received notice from her agent of three possible movie contracts. She was trapped on the second floor of the home by heat and smoke, as the fire had started in the living room.

The women urged the secretary's daughter to jump from the second-floor window. After her daughter jumped, Darnell's secretary stood on the window ledge, calling for help. She had lost track of Darnell and insisted that the firefighters rescue Darnell before she was taken from the window ledge. Darnell was found next to the burning living-room sofa and was transferred to the burn unit at Chicago's Cook County Hospital with burns over 80% of her body.

After her death, a man who said that he was Darnell's fiancé identified her body. A coroner's inquest ruled that Darnell's death was accidental and that the fire had begun in or near the living-room sofa and was caused by careless smoking; both adult women were smokers.

Darnell's body was cremated; she had wanted her ashes scattered over a ranch in New Mexico, but because of a dispute with the landowners that was not possible. After the remains had been in storage for ten years, her daughter asked that they be interred at the Union Hill Cemetery, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the family plot of her son-in-law.

Recognition

Darnell has a star at 1631 Vine Street in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filmography

Radio appearances

See also

In Spanish: Linda Darnell para niños