Linda Darnell

A pretty and pleasant midwestern American girl. A mother consumed with the desire to push her daughter to attain all the fame and glamour she never found. If there's one common taproot among all the burned-out starlets, it's the obsessive, vicarious stage-mother. Linda Darnell was no exception. The young Linda (Monetta as she was known then) probably enjoyed the spotlight of department store modeling, small-market stage acting and beauty pageants—but, she probably also would have enjoyed a childhood of gradual personal development; of learning how to form healthy relationships with her peers; of moderated exposure to the world of adults. She probably would have enjoyed any childhood, period. But that's not the life Linda's mother Pearl made for her. At barely 14 years-old, her mother sent her to meet one of the Hollywood talent scouts who prospected middle America, looking for the next bit of coal who might stand up to the pressures of the star machine and come out a gem. She made enough of an impression on the scout to earn a screen test, but in a rare moment of moral rectitude, the studio, 20th Century Fox, sent her home for being too young. But alas, only a year later Fox felt no sting of compunction when they signed Darnell to a contract when rival RKO expressed interest in her.

15-years-old and sent to Hollywood. Alone. Darnell posed as 17. Fox billed her as 19. Not that the ruse lasted long, and not that anyone really cared. Her true age of 16 was revealed in 1939, the same year a Life magazine article (bookended by whiskey ads) declared her "the most physically perfect girl in Hollywood".

Mommy Dearest

1940 began with a string of successes for Darnell, beginning with Star Dust, the tale of a beautiful young girl discovered by a talent scout but rejected for being too young—at 17 she was already parodying herself. Audiences and critics both approved of her performances, particularly when teamed up with Tyrone Power. Her mother, however, was harder to please. By now, Pearl had followed her daughter west and was starting to make a name for herself as well with her overbearing on-set behavior. She made news by claiming her husband was having an incestuous relationship with another daughter, a charge Linda disbelieved. After the ensuing private fallout, Pearl turned against her in the press.

By 1941, the fickle tastes of movie audiences began to change. Perhaps in an era when a studio could put out scores features annually, the public felt oversaturated with her. Or maybe by turning 18, the novelty of a child leading lady disappeared. When coupled with her refusal of studio head Darryl F. Zanuck's lecherous advances, the result was the abrupt cool-down of her career. Darnell only made one picture in 1942. That same year she began receiving anonymous letters demanding money under threat of physical harm. The would-be extortionist turned out to be a 17-year-old high school student. Zanuck loaned her out to Columbia for a forgettable B-movie and put her on formal suspension in 1943 when she eloped in Vegas with cameraman J. Peverell Marley.

But professionally, Darnell endured. Still in the prime years of a young actress, she took supporting roles in low-budget productions, and eventually her talent as well as her beauty were recognized and the studio brought her back to A-pictures. In 1945, Zanuck had her added to the cast of the Otto Preminger noir Fallen Angel. Zanuck's pressure to cut star Alice Faye's screentime in favor of Darnell eventually prompted Faye to drive off the studio lot and leave the movies entirely for 17 years. Darnell, who no co-worker ever spoke poorly of, reportedly had a difficult time working with the notoriously severe Preminger.

In private, Linda's life would reach Douglas Sirk levels of melodrama. Marley introduced her to his good friend, alcohol, who would also serve as her companion for years to come. Another baleful bedfellow Darnell would make around this time was Howard Hughes. Falling for him, Linda separated from Marley and convinced herself Hughes would marry her. When Hughes made clear he had no intentions of doing so, Darnell canceled the divorce proceedings.

Linda preferred RC Cola...

In 1947, Darnell was cast in the highly-anticipated Forever Amber, a $6 million picture likened to the production of Gone with the Wind, again, helmed by Preminger. Though not eager to work with him again, she took the coveted role, and paid for it physically. The director's overbearing manner, the long hours, studio-required weight losses, and increased drinking led to multiple collapses. Despite prosperity at the box-office, Forever Amber was not the one thing Linda wanted most of all, a critical success.

1949's A Letter to Three Wives was yet another double-edged sword Darnell managed to fall upon. A commercial and critical success, the film brought her capital when bargaining with the studio over roles. It also introduced her to writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Linda would carry on an affair with Mankiewicz for six years and would again separate and return to her husband after her paramour refused to marry her. Drinking, depression, a suicide attempt, and the stifled hostility she felt since childhood led to psychotherapy. All of this coincided with a lawsuit against a former manager who stole thousands from her.

Back at Fox, for her next role, Darnell chose the lead in the controversial Pinky, a film about a light-skinned black southerner who passes for white in the North. Zanuck quashed this possibility and cast Linda's Three Wives co-star Jeanne Crain instead. Crain's performance would be nominated for an Academy Award, a recognition Darnell would never see.

...and Tab.

The 50's were not kind to actors without the protection of a long-term contract. Competition from TV was the main impetus for studios to cut back, and expendable actors were the first to go. Darnell maintained employed, but the roles she had to choose from thinned. Despite a horse allergy, she made westerns. Despite her desire to be commended for her acting, she took glamour roles. And despite him, she even agreed to work with the dreaded Preminger again. With a new contract in 1951, she gained the option to freelance. Thinking freedom from the studio system would offer new opportunities, she found being released from premiere productions also meant leaving behind premiere salaries. These lower-budget studios were also far from the tight ship ran by the big producers only a decade prior and would often fall behind schedule. Her drinking, illnesses and weight gains also made her less employable.

Returning to the US after several pictures made abroad (including a Howard Hughes-produced 3-D film shot in Mexico) and divorced from Marley, Darnell believed she has secured the lead in The Barefoot Contessa, a dramatic vehicle that would return her career to its heights and reunite her with Mankiewicz. She was wrong on both accounts: Ava Gardner would take the role and the affair ended. Darnell would marry three more times, including a brief and loveless marriage-in-name-only with a brewery heir.

After 1955, Darnell returned to Fox, which had started producing television. There she averaged about three "Television Playhouse"-style productions per year as well as the sporadic B-picture. By 1965, the pace of Linda's career had slowed to only one TV credit and one film credit in the last six years. Was she "taking a break"? Or did Hollywood stop calling? The answer, as usual, probably lied somewhere in between.

1965 also found Linda in Skokie, Ill, visiting a former personal assistant while preparing for a regional stage production. In a callback finale only Hollywood could provide, she spent the night of April 9th watching her 1940 film Star Dust on TV. The vultures would later claim she fell asleep, drunk, despondent, and dreaming of days gone by while an unwatched cigarette smoldered. There's no proof her carelessness led to the blaze that night, but the rags couldn't resist such pathos. Darnell was burned over 90% of her body and the next day, all of 41 years old, succumbed to her injuries.