Gene Tierney
GALLERY | OTHER GALLERIES | WAY OF A GAUCHO
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN | MOVIE RARITIES IN STOCK
{ B I O G .}
Actress
Date of birth:
19 November 1920
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Birth name:
Gene Eliza Tierney
Height:
5' 7"
Spouse:
W. Howard Lee (11 July 1960 - 17 February 1981) (his death)
Oleg Cassini (1 June 1941 - 28 February 1952) (divorced) 2 children
Date of death:
6 November 1991
Houston, Texas, USA. (emphysema)
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Biography
Gene Tierney, who was better known for her beauty than her talent, was the daughter of a wealthy stockbroker, and started acting on stage in the late 1930s. A supporting role in the Broadway production of The Male Animal in 1940 brought Tierney to the attention of 20th Century Fox; she was signed and received a rapid star build-up in such pictures as The Return of Frank James, Hudson's Bay (all 1940), and Tobacco Road receiving star billing with Belle Starr (both 1941). She was loaned to director Josef von Sternberg for The Shanghai Gesture (also 1941), but was woefully miscast as an exotic dragon lady; at her home studio, her projects were carefully tailored to her talents.
Tierney was at her best in such films as Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait (1943), Laura (1944), and the memorable The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947, opposite Rex Harrison); she earned an Oscar nomination for her persuasive performance as a venal woman who "just loves too much" in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), one of several films to capture her beauty with the full force of Technicolor.
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