Gene Tierney

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Birth name Gene Eliza Tierney
Nationality USA
Birth 19 november 1920 at Brooklyn (USA)
Death 6 november 1991 (at 70 years) at Houston (USA)

Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as a 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 an Academy Award for Best Actress 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), Maggie Carleton McNulty in The Mating Season (1951) and Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955).

Biography

Tierney married two men: the first was Oleg Cassini, a costume and fashion designer, on June 1, 1941, with whom she eloped. Her parents opposed the marriage, as he was from a Russian-Italian family and born in Europe. Cassini and she had two daughters, Antoinette Daria Cassini (October 15, 1943 – September 11, 2010) and Christina "Tina" Cassini (November 19, 1948 – March 31, 2015), born after their first divorce, paternity of whom was the subject of intrigue and speculation at the time due to Tierney's links with Howard Hughes, Tyrone Power, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Charles Feldman.

In June 1943, while pregnant with Daria, Tierney contracted rubella (German measles), likely from a fan ill with the disease. Daria was born prematurely in Washington, DC, weighing three pounds, two ounces (1.42 kg) and requiring a total blood transfusion. The rubella caused congenital damage: Daria was deaf, partially blind with cataracts, and severely mentally disabled. She was institutionalized for much of her life. This was partial inspiration for the 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 the best care. Tierney never forgot his acts of kindness.

Tierney and Cassini separated October 20, 1946, and entered into a property settlement agreement November 10, 1946. Periodicals during this period record Tierney with Charles Feldman, including articles related to her "twosoming" with Feldman, her "current best beau". An uncontested divorce followed in California; their final divorce decree was dated March 13, 1948. The couple reconciled on August 19, 1948.

During their separation, Tierney met John F. Kennedy, a young veteran from WWII, who was visiting the set of Dragonwyck in 1946. They began a romance that she ended the following year after Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of his 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 ensnarements, including Kirk Douglas

Tierney remarried Cassini, but they divorced again on February 28, 1952. "Cassini promised in his 1952 divorce from Gene Tierney that he would write a will leaving both of his daughters half of his fortune". 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 a long battle over alimony, then Lee and Tierney married in Aspen, Colorado, on July 11, 1960. They lived quietly in Houston, Texas, and Florida until his death in 1981.

In 1960, 20th Century Fox announced Tierney would play the lead role in Return to Peyton Place, but she dropped out of the project after becoming pregnant. She later miscarried.