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Linda Darnell
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Daughter of a Texas postal clerk, actress Linda Darnell trained to be a dancer, and came to Hollywood's attention as a photographer's model. Though only 15, Darnell looked quite mature and seductive in her first motion picture, Hotel For Women (1937), and before she was twenty she found herself the leading lady of such 20th Century-Fox male heartthrobs as Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda. Weary of thankless good-girl roles, Darnell scored a personal triumph when loaned out to United Artists for September Storm (1944), in which she played a "Scarlett O'Hara" type Russian vixen. Thereafter, 20th Century-Fox assigned the actress meatier, more substantial parts, culminating in the much-sought-after leading role in 1947's Forever Amber. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz followed up this triumph by giving Darnell two of her best parts--Paul Douglas' "wrong side of the tracks" wife in A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and Richard Widmark's racist girlfriend in No Way Out (1950) (though befitting her star status, Darnell "reformed" at the end of both films). When her Fox contract ended in 1952, Darnell found herself cast adrift in Hollywood, the good roles fewer and farther between; by the mid-1960s, she was appearing as a nightclub singer, touring in summer theatre, and accepting supporting roles on television.
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Daughter of a Texas postal clerk, actress Linda Darnell trained to be a dancer, and came to Hollywood's attention as a photographer's model. Though only 15, Darnell looked quite mature and seductive in her first motion picture, Hotel For Women (1937), and before she was twenty she found herself...Read More
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On that day, Hollywood film star Linda Darnell, at the young age of 41, died of burns she suffered in the house fire of her former secretary. The heroic actress's final act was a futile attempt to save a child from the burning building. Once called "the woman with the perfect face," Darnell ironically had been watching Star Dust (1940) on television, the film that had set her career in motion when she was only 17. The cause of the fire was apparently accidental.
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Synopsis: 17-year-old Linda Darnell received her first big break in the appropriately titled 20th Century-Fox production Star Dust. Discovered by talent scout Thomas Brooke (Roland Young), teenager Carolyn Sayre (Darnell) is brought to Hollywood, where she is turned down for a contract because she isRead More
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Darnell played two roles that earned her respect as an actress: Daphne de Carter in the Preston Sturges comedy Unfaithfully Yours (1948), opposite Rex Harrison, and one of the three wives in the comedy/drama A Letter to Three Wives (1949). Darnell's hard-edged performance in the latter won her the best reviews of her career. She was widely tipped to win an Academy Award nomination for this part, but, when this did not happen, her career began to wane, and her film appearances were sporadic thereafter. Further hampering Darnell's career was the actress's alcoholism and weight gain.
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Linda Darnell est née dans une famille pauvre du Texas. Poussée par sa mère, elle fait des débuts précoces en tant que mannequin, sa mère déclare qu’elle a 16 ans alors qu’elle n’en a que onze. Plus tard, elle fait ses premières expériences de comédienne en interprétant des petits rôles dans des théâtres d’amateurs. En 1937, elle se présente à un casting à Dallas, organisé par des chasseurs de talent de la 20th Century Fox. Mais elle n’a que quatorze ans et les casteurs la jugeant trop jeune, ne la choisissent pas. Elle sera pourtant remarquée grâce à sa beauté exceptionnelle et Darryl F. Zanuck, le grand patron de la Fox en personne, la rappelle deux ans plus tard.
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Linda Darnell