Gene Tierney was born in Brooklyn to wealthy parents on Nov. 20, 1920. Her father was a prosperous stockbroker. She was educated in private schools in Connecticut and Switzerland.

When Tierney expressed an interest in an acting career after her society debut, her father formed a family owned corporation, Belle-Tier, to develop, promote and exploit her untried talent. (He sued his daughter for breach of contract in the early 1940s — followed shortly by a divorce from Mrs. Tierney.)

Exquisitely etched cheekbones and an exotic feline beauty helped her break into Broadway in 1939 after turning down a contract with Warner Brothers. Her debut on Broadway was in “Mrs. O’Brien Entertains� (1938).

She was with Columbia Pictures for a short time but left to return to Broadway before they put her into a film. After playing the ingenue in “The Male Animal� on Broadway she was contracted under M-G-M. When the studio couldn’t find a property for her, Twentieth Century-Fox signed her. She finally made her movie debut as Henry Fonda’s sweetheart in The Return of Frank James (1940). The next year she registered in a showy part as Ellie May in Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road.

During the ’40s and ’50s she was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. Her best performances were those of complicated and manipulative women like those in Laura (1944), The Razor’s Edge (1946) and Leave Her to Heaven (1945) which got her an Oscar nomination for best actress.

Her other films include Belle Starr (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1943), A Bell for Adano (1945), Dragonwyck (1946), Advise and Consent (1962), and The Pleasure Seekers (1964).

Gene Tierney got the role in Laura after Hedy Lamarr turned it down. Her last appearances were in an episode of TV’s “The F.B.I.� in 1969 and in the same year a small part in telefeature “Daughter of the Mind.� Her autobiography, Self Portrait (1979) reveals that she regularly dated John F. Kennedy during his Navy days and frankly discusses her past misfortunes.

She was only 21 when she married the sophisticated fashion designer Oleg Cassini.

During her first pregnancy, Gene contracted German measles and gave birth to a daughter who was physically and mentally challenged. When her marriage came apart she entered into a well-publicized affair with the late Ali Khan. Many felt their break-up was the last straw that led to a nervous breakdown. She returned to the United States in 1955 and sought psychiatric help. The next thing the public heard, Gene Tierney had committed herself to the Menninger Clinic.

In July of 1960, just as soon as his divorce from Hedy Lamarr was final, Texas millionaire oilman W. Howard Lee and Gene were married.

For a while after moving to Houston she wrote a column in the local newspaper in which she reminisced about her Hollywood days. She was active in raising funds for cancer research, mental health and the care of physically or mentally challenged children. In an interview after she had found happiness at last, she said, “It’s like being in a dark tunnel for so long you think it’s endless and then suddenly you come out into the light.�

She died on Nov. 6, 1991.

— Vernon Parker

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