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Linda Darnell Profile
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Photo gallery |
| (Monetta Eloyse Darnell) |
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| 16 October 23 | is born in Dallas, Texas |
| 39 | makes $200 a week at 20th Century-Fox |
| 18 March 40 | preserves her hand and footprints in cement in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater |
| 40 | is in New York for the first time and stays at the Waldorf Astoria |
| dates Mickey Rooney and becomes lifelong friend with his stand-in, Dick Paxton |
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| 42 | tours eastern army camps |
| 18 April 43 | without consulting her family, she elopes with Pev Marley to Las Vegas and marries him; Ann Miller is her maid of honor |
| 43 | her unbilled scenes as the Virgin Mary in The Song of Bernadette have to be reshot due to complaints from author Franz Werfel |
| 44 | she's named one of the 4 most beautiful women in the world in a Look magazine-sponsored contest |
| fights a weight problem |
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| June 45 | Fallen Angel opens in Dallas, and old acquaintances are disappointed in her. Her vocabulary has become downright salty, and there is a drink in her hand most of the time. |
| her studio is planning to cast her in Captain from Castile |
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| ? | billionaire Howard Hughes flies her, accompanied by her agent, to the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, where he has rented an entire floor for dinner |
| ? | Hughes gives her flying lessons |
| May 46 | falls for playing golf, as her husband Pev Marley's a golf fiend |
| ? | her life with Marley becomes increasingly strained |
| ? | is ready to drop her career in order to marry Hughes |
| 7 July 46 | visits Hughes at Good Samaritan Hospital after his XF-11 crash and, ten days later, announces her separation from Marley, who asks for a substantial sum from Hughes to let her go |
| ? | begins to drink brandy and milk by 10.30 a.m. every day |
| 11 January 48 | her adopted, 6-day-old baby daughter Lola arrives with the Marleys at their Amalfi Drive home; her adoption is kept secret until March |
| falls for the married Joe Mankiewicz while filming A Letter to Three Wives |
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| March 48 | has an argument about the high-cut slit in her World War I hobble skirt on the set of The Walls of Jericho |
| 15 July 48 | the press confirms the Marleys have separated again |
| 49 | is on the verge of suicide over her love for Mankiewicz |
| May 49 | paints her portrait under guidance of artist Norman Rockwell |
| 50 | begins building a new house in Bel Air |
| 19 July 50 | definitely separates from Marley |
| 19 February 51 | wins her divorce from Marley |
| July 51 | wears one of the lowest-cut gowns ever seen on the screen for The Lady Pays Off |
| October 51 | is a new twosome-about-New York with the ex of Ethel Merman, ad man Bob Levitt |
| September 52 | Fox cancels her contract |
| March 53 | spends a few days at Lake Mead with Philip Liebmann, head of Rheingold Beer, whom she met in her own home, photographing a commercial for his company |
| May 53 | develops an affair of sorts with Giuseppe Amato, her producer on Donne Proibite |
| ? | grows determined to raise money for Girls Town of Italy |
| ? | spends several days with Mankiewicz in New York |
| Christmas 53 | sees a lot of Liebmann during the Christmas holidays |
| 25 February 54 | she and Liebmann are secretly married in Bernadillo, New Mexico; some claim she married him to get the money for Girls Town |
| ? | lives with Liebmann in Rye, New York, or on her ranch in Picacho, New Mexico |
| July 54 | is madly in love with Philip Liebmann and is as snappish as a cross puppy while making Night Music |
| October 54 | secretly married for several months, she and Philip Liebmann pose for a picture with his father, Alfred Liebmann |
| December 54 | spends Christmas at Liebmann's father's home on Park Avenue |
| January 55 | flies to Italy to make her second picture for Amato |
| June 55 | returns to New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth |
| August 55 | returns to Fox for TV work on "General Electric Theater" |
| November 55 | her marriage to Liebmann seems okay, although they spend more time apart than they do together |
| 1 December 55 | seeks a Mexican divorce in Juarez, returning the $42,000 engagement ring to Liebmann, who marries a 26-year-old Los Angeles reservation clerk five days later |
| Early 56 | settles into her Bel Air home |
| April 56 | is the most surprised gal in town over the remarriage of her wealthy mate. "It was going on right under my nose," she says. |
| ? | goes into complete seclusion after her marriage to brewing tycoon Philip Liebmann breaks up |
| ? | tours Hilton Hotels in the Caribbean with friend Ann Miller |
| ? | meets handsome American Airlines pilot Merle Roy Robertson, age 39 |
| 3 March 57 | marries Robertson in Riverside |
| has a problem with alcohol |
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| June 57 | cooks for her beloved one, pilot Robby Robertson |
| November 58 | sinks into a depression |
| February 59 | plays the Drury Lane Theater, Chicago, with Dial M for Murder |
| Robertson talks her into a nightclub act with opera singer Thomas Hayward |
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| April 60 - September 61 | the act with Hayward plays Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Williamsburg, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Washington D.C.; Dallas and Houston, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Chicago, IIlinois; Roswell, New Mexico; and the Cal-Neva Lodge and Las Vegas, Nevada |
| 61 | her hair falls out due to alopecia areata |
| December 61 | discovers that Robertson has a girlfriend, 28-year-old buxom Yugoslavian actress Vera Violetta Gregovic, a former intimate of Marshal Tito, who is pregnant with his child |
| ? | has a physical confrontation with Gregovic |
| 14 February 62 | legally separates from Robertson and sues him for $1,000 monthly alimony |
| 23/27 November 63 | her divorce from Robertson is granted in Los Angeles |
| her Bel Air house goes on the auction block |
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| begins dating Philip Kalavros, a Greek doctor |
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| February 62 | plays the Drury Lane Theater, Chicago, with The Gioconda Smile |
| lives in an apartment on Woolman Avenue, Chicago |
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| October 64 | starts playing Janus in Albuquerque |
| March 65 | moves in with her friends Jeanne and Richard Curtis in their new home in Glenview, Illinois |
| 9 April 65 | suffers second- and third-degree burns over 90 percent of her body, including her face, when fire breaks out at 5:00 a.m. at the Glenview home, due to undetermined causes. She was watching her movie Star Dust on late night TV shortly before the fire started. |
| 10 April 65 | dies at age 41 at the Skokie Valley Hospital, Chicago, from the fire injuries; her remains are cremated |
| 75 | after being kept in the office of a Chicago cemetery for ten years, her ashes are finally buried in the family plot of her daughter Lola's husband, Jim Adams, at Union Hill Cemetery, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania |
| Sources: American Beauty - Linda Darnell and the American Dream by Ronald L. Davis, Movie Greats by Paul Michael, Screen Romances, Motion Picture, Modern Screen, Screen Stories, Silver Screen, Made in Heaven by Victoria Houseman | |
| Recommended Books: American Beauty - Linda Darnell and the American Dream by Ronald L. Davis | |
| Links: Filmography JSR Pages: Linda Darnell Find A Grave The Linda Darnell Glove Gallery Linda Darnell Forever | |