Gene Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American stage and film actress. AIn the 1940s, Tierney was one of Hollywood's top stars, celebrated for her striking beauty and natural elegance. She was a leading lady known for her versatility, excelling in film noir, dramas, and romantic comedies, with her most iconic roles coming in this era.
Tierney signed with 20th Century-Fox and her motion picture debut was in a supporting role as Eleanor Stone in Fritz Lang’s Western The Return of Frank James (1940), opposite Henry Fonda.
A small role as Barbara Hall followed in Hudson’s Bay (1941) with Paul Muni and she co-starred as Ellie Mae Lester in John Ford’s comedy Tobacco Road (also 1941), and played the title role in Belle Starr alongside co-star Randolph Scott, Zia in Sundown, and Victoria Charteris (Poppy Smith) in The Shanghai Gesture. She played Eve in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942), as well as the dual role of Susan Miller (Linda Worthington) in Rouben Mamoulian’s screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers, and roles as Kay Saunders in Thunder Birds, and Miss Young in China Girl (all 1942).
Receiving top billing in Ernst Lubitsch’s comedy Heaven Can Wait (1943), as Martha Strable Van Cleve, signaled an upward turn in Tierney's career. Tierney starred in what became her best-remembered role: the title role in Otto Preminger’s film noir Laura (1944), opposite Dana Andrews.
After playing Tina Tomasino in A Bell for Adano (1945), she played the jealous, narcissistic femme fatale Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), adapted from a bestselling novel by Ben Ames Williams. Appearing with Cornel Wilde, Tierney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. This was 20th Century-Fox’s most successful film of the 1940s.
Tierney starred as Miranda Wells in Dragonwyck (1946), along with Walter Huston and Vincent Price. It was Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ debut film as a director. In the same period, she starred as Isabel Bradley, opposite Tyrone Power, in The Razor’s Edge (also 1946), an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name. Her performance was critically praised.
Tierney played Lucy Muir in Mankiewicz’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), opposite Rex Harrison. The following year, she co-starred again with Power, this time as Sara Farley in the successful screwball comedy That Wonderful Urge (1948). As the decade came to a close, Tierney reunited with Laura director Preminger to star as Ann Sutton in the classic film noir Whirlpool (1950), co-starring Richard Conte and José Ferrer.
In the course of the 1940s, she reached a pinnacle of fame as a beautiful leading lady, on a par with “fellow sirens Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner.” She was called “the most beautiful woman in movie history” and many of her movies in the 1940s became classic films.
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