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Gene Tierney Profile
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| (Gene Eliza Tierney) |
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| 19 November 20 | is born in Brooklyn, New York, to Howard Tierney, Sr., an insurance broker, and his wife, Belle Lavinia Taylor Tierney |
| 29 | travels across Europe |
| 35 | attends boarding school in Switzerland for two years. One of her roommates is Maria Sieber, the daughter of Marlene Dietrich |
| Fall 36 | sails for Europe and meets Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., on board |
| December 36 | spends Christmas in Oslo, Norway |
| Summer 37 | joins her brother in Paris |
| 38 | during a guided tour through the Warner Brothers studios, director Anatole Litvak suggests she ought to be in pictures. Director John Farrow directs her screen test shortly thereafter. |
| 24 September 38 | is presented to society at the Fairfield Country Club, Connecticut |
| Winter 38 | is on Broadway in Mrs. O'Brien Entertains. Warner Brothers offers her a contract, but she signs with Columbia for $350 a week for the first six months. |
| 39 | through her agent, Leland Hayward, she meets Howard Hughes, billionaire owner of RKO Studios |
| Hughes flies her and her mother to lunch in Tijuana, Mexico, where he has reserved an entire restaurant and a band. He sends her a roomful of gardenias before their first date. |
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| her brother Butch works for three months at Hughes Aircraft |
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| Summer 40 | Hughes sends his own physician, Dr. Vernon Mason, to examine her stomach problems |
| returns to New York for Broadway's The Male Animal |
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| dates actor/writer Robert Morley and acquires a taste for caviar at the Stork club |
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| dates actors Desi Arnaz and Eddie Albert, is linked in the gossip columns with Robert Sterling, and develops a sisterly affection for Mickey Rooney |
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| End of 40 | at a party given by actress Constance Moore, she meets Paramount designer Oleg Cassini and spends New Year's Eve with him |
| 1 June 41 | elopes with and marries fashion designer Oleg Cassini in Las Vegas. Her parents are against that marriage. |
| the Cassinis are cut off socially |
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| starts suffering from a strange allergy |
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| November 42 | the Cassinis move to a new house and make a modest living |
| December 42 | when war breaks out, Cassini is assigned to the Coast Guard and later to the cavalry |
| Early 43 | Cassini knocks down a photographer who dared to try to kiss her on the neck |
| March 43 | pregnant, she's infected with German measles by a female admirer at the Hollywood Canteen. She leaves for Fort Riley, Kansas, where her husband is stationed. |
| 14 October 43 | her daughter Daria is born prematurely in Washington. The child is retarded, lacking fluid in the inner ear and having a cataract in the corner of her left eye. She'll never improve. |
| 46 | at composer Cole Porter's home she meets writer Somerset Maugham a few days before she gets the part in his Laura |
| Spring 46 | separated from her husband, she meets young politician John "Jack" F. Kennedy while filming Dragonwyck. He takes her out for dinner at the Versailles restaurant in New York; they listen to Edith Piaf. |
| a few months after she meets Jack, she asks Cassini for a divorce |
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| Late 46 | while filming The Razor's Edge, she becomes great friends with co-star Tyrone Power, with whom she cannot fall in love after having met Jack Kennedy |
| when Kennedy confesses that he wouldn't marry her, she breaks off the relationship |
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| 47 | sells her house and returns with her mother to the East Coast |
| February 48 | after receiving her interlocutory decree she reconciles with Cassini and tries for a new start |
| 49 | her daughter Christina, "Tina", is born |
| 50 | goes to London for the filming of Night and the City. Clifton Webb invites her to dinner, where she's introduced to Marlene Dietrich and Noel Coward. Afterwards she visits Paris. |
| September 50 | seems to have an unusual pact with Oleg Cassini that defies constant rumors of a rift |
| December 52 | while filming Way of a Goucho in Argentina, she meets famed playboys Porfirio Rubirosa and Prince Aly Salomone Khan, the ex of Rita Hayworth, at a party during the Christmas holidays |
| 28 February 52 | divorces Cassini, testifying he was more interested in his tennis game than in her |
| April 52 | attends an industry luncheon where MGM's Dore Schary introduces Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands to Hollywood |
| 53 | films Plymouth Adventure and Never Let Me Go in England and makes home in London |
| refuses the part that eventually goes to Grace Kelly in the upcoming Mogambo; filming lasts 6 months in Africa |
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| meets Prince Aly Khan in Paris again, and they become inseparable. They spend the year travelling across Europe, and she rents a house near his Chateau l'Horizon on the Riviera. |
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| turns down the lead in Monsieur Ripois |
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| turns down an invitation of Sir Douglas and Lady Fairbanks to visit London for a dinner with the future Queen of England |
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| May 53 | Prince Aly Khan reserves a $9,500-per-night hotel suite for himself and her so they can have a birds-eye view of Queen Elizabeth's coronation route |
| July 53 | Prince Aly Khan says he's in love with her, but his papa, the Aga, says he still favors Rita |
| 54 | Aly flies to London to be with her for her filming of Personal Affair |
| qualms about her mental condition become harder to ignore |
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| January 54 | Aly Khan arrives in Hollywood to continue his pursuit of her. His custody battle with Rita Hayworth over child support for their daughter Yasmin has kept him out of the States for a long time. |
| March 54 | battles with Cassini over the custody of their daughter |
| the Aga Khan is opposed to a marriage of his son to Gene Tierney: "If he marries Mrs. Tierney, I will not receive her" |
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| after 18 months with Prince Aly Khan, she returns to Connecticut, and he, to Karachi, where he becomes ambassador of Pakistan |
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| reports back to work with The Black Widow, but has problems with her lines |
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| Aly's a daily visitor to the set while she's filming The Egyptian at 20th Century-Fox |
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| 55 | after filming The Left Hand of God, the mental breakdown comes nearer, the depressions come more often, and her sight is affected, too |
| she signs herself into the Institute for Living in Hartford, Connecticut. After shock treatments she's released to her mother's custody. |
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| 56 | is invited to the inauguration of President Eisenhower |
| Spring 58 | she's a frequent guest at Cole Porter's home in New York |
| 58 | after returning to New York she has an impulse to attempt suicide from the window ledge and suffers from acrophobia ever since. Her brother brings her to Dr. Karl Menninger's Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, considered the best psychiatric facility in the world. |
| August 58 | is released from Menninger's and vacations with her mother and daughter in Aspen, Colorado. There she meets her second husband, Houston oilman Howard Lee, the ex of actress Hedy Lamarr. |
| 25 December 58 | feels a need to return to Menninger's and signs herself in |
| March 59 | she's able to receive visitors again and Howard Lee flies in from Houston every weekend |
| Fall 59 | as she's allowed to leave the clinic, she works in a dress shop in Topeka |
| November 59 | she's finally released from Menninger's |
| 60 | votes for Richard Nixon when Kennedy is elected to the White House |
| shortly before her marriage to Howard Lee, Prince Aly Khan phones her for the last time, asking to take her to dinner, but she refuses |
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| 12 May 60 | Prince Aly Khan dies in the crash of his Lancia sports car near the Bois de Boulogne, age 48. His companion, the model Bettina, survives. |
| 11 July 60 | marries Howard Lee in Aspen, Colorado |
| 61 | withdraws from her role in Return to Peyton Place when she becomes pregnant. She miscarries and looses the baby at four and a half months. |
| 62 | after the premiere of Advise and Consent, she and her husband are invited to the White House for lunch. She sits next to the President and sees him for the last time. |
| makes her home in Houston |
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| 79 | publishes her autobiography, Self Portrait, with writer Mickey Herskowitz |
| 80 | is widowed |
| 6 November 91 | as Gene T. Lee, she dies at age 70 from emphysema in Houston, Texas |
| Sources: Self Portrait by Gene Tierney and Mickey Herskowitz, Made in Heaven by Victoria Houseman,Motion Picture, The Hollywood Reporter, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: Self-Portrait by Gene Tierney Gene Tierney by Marceau Devillers | |
| Links: Filmography Gene Tierney Page Classic Movies: Gene Tierney Gene Tierney Elizabeth's Gene Tierney Page Denny Jackson's Gene Tierney Page Gene Tierney: La Feline D' Hollywood JSR Pages: Gene Tierney Wallpapers | |