What was Gene Tierney's personality like?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Classic Film
Kynodontas — 2 years ago(November 30, 2023 05:18 PM)
Last week I discovered Isabelle Adjani, this weekend I watched Sundowners and saw Gene Tierney who I never heard of before for the first time. Wow she's so mesmerizing!
So I ask what kind of person was she? Is she your typical big headed egotistic movie star? Or was she more mellow and humble in comparison to most stars esp her contemporaries in the way Audrey Hepburn often gets painted by the media as the embodiment of humility? Was she into art and other high art stuff of culture and intellectualism? A feminist? Liberal or conservative? Overall how would you describe her personality based on biographies and eyewitness testimonies? -
Doghouse-6 — 2 years ago(December 01, 2023 06:20 PM)
I was confused at first by the reference to "Sundowners," until I realized you meant Tierney's 1941 picture, SUNDOWN (THE SUNDOWNERS was a 1960 Fred Zinneman film with Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr as Australian sheep farmers…and an excellent one).
Tierney has indeed been described my many as mesmerizing, and two of her best-known films embodying this quality are 1944's LAURA and 1945's LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN. To experience the breadth of her versatility, I'd recommend also 1943's HEAVEN CAN WAIT, 1946's THE RAZOR'S EDGE, 1947's THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, 1950's NIGHT AND THE CITY and WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, 1951's THE MATING SEASON and 1955's THE LEFT HAND OF GOD.
I really know nothing about her artistic, cultural, intellectual or political interests but, by all accounts, she was a dedicated professional always endeavoring to further her craft and career advancement.
Unfortunately, what's most known about her offscreen life was a series of personal difficulties, including a tumultuous and scandal-ridden first marriage to designer Oleg Cassini, the birth of a disabled child and subsequent recurring battles with mental illness, which became a source of activism for her later in life.
Against all of these troubles, she persevered and prevailed. Alongside her luminous screen presence, she is remembered for her spirit of survival: never giving in or giving up.
Poe! You are…avenged! -
spiderwort — 2 years ago(December 01, 2023 10:26 PM)
Beautifully said, Doghouse. She was such a beautiful woman and quite the talented actress, someone I always found utterly mesmerizing. It was hard not to watch her in every scene she was in on the big screen or the small screen.
@Kynodontas