Linda Darnell

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Linda Darnell, 1944

Linda Darnell (born October 16, 1923 in Dallas , Texas , † April 10, 1965 in Glenview , Illinois ; actually Monetta Eloyse Darnell ) was an American actress .

Life

Linda Darnell was born in Dallas , Texas in 1923 , the daughter of a postal clerk, and was enrolled in a number of beauty pageants and dance tournaments at an early age by her ambitious mother. At 14, she won a local Gateway to Hollywood competition and a screen test at RKO . Two years later, she got a contract with 20th Century Fox , where she soon played the wife of Tyrone Power in Daytime Wife . With power, she also stood together in front of the camera in the films Trek to Utah , Under the Sign of Zorro and King of the Toreros .

An exotic beauty, Darnell quickly became one of the studio's most popular female stars. Mostly it was used in more decorative parts, but in 1944 at the latest under the direction of Douglas Sirk in Summer Storm , the film adaptation of Anton Pawlowitsch Chekhov 's short story Summer Storms , she showed her talent for acting. After losing the leading roles in The Song of Bernadette to Jennifer Jones and Laura to Gene Tierney , she got her chance in Amber, the great courtesan , in 1947 after Lana Turner turned down the role. Otto Preminger took on the filming of a novel that was piquant for the time , forcing Darnell to dye his hair blonde for the role and otherwise putting massive psychological and physical pressure on her. The film flopped and Darnell was about to be released from her contract. Joseph L. Mankiewicz gave her one of the leading roles in A Letter to Three Wives , and Darnell was one of her best performances. But with the new Fox star Jeanne Crain , Darnell lost more good roles. By the mid-1950s, her career was more or less over, and until 1965 she was only seen in television productions and rarely in movies.

Linda Darnell was married three times. In 1942 she gave yes to the cameraman J. Peverell Marley, who was 23 years her senior in Las Vegas. Since the couple could not have children together, they adopted a daughter (Charlotte Mildred Marley) in 1948. The marriage ended in divorce in 1951, with Darnell having sole custody. In 1954 she married the heir to the brewery, Philip Liebmann, but divorced him a year later. In 1957 she married the pilot Merle Roy Robertson, from whom she was divorced in 1963. Darnell died in 1965 of severe burns from a fire in a friend's house. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1631 Vine Street commemorates Linda Darnell.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Linda Darnell  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Darnell, Linda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Darnell, Monetta Eloyse (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Dallas , Texas , United States
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1965
Place of death Glenview , Illinois , United States