- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrances Elena Farmer
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Born in Seattle, Frances Farmer studied drama at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1935, she went to Hollywood where she secured a seven-year contract with Paramount. In 1943, she was wrongfully declared mentally incompetent and committed by her parents to a series of asylums and public mental hospitals, leading to a false rumor that she received a lobotomy. After seven years she was released, and spent some of the remaining years of her life tending the parents who had committed her and taking odd jobs. She appeared on This Is Your Life (1950), and then her own TV show, Frances Farmer Presents (1958) for six years. She died of cancer in 1970.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Alexander Lum < aj_lum@postoffice.utas.edu.au>
- Born in Seattle, Frances Farmer studied journalism and drama at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1935, after winning a trip to Russia to see the Moscow Art Theater, she went to Hollywood where she secured a seven-year contract with Paramount. By the end of 1936, she was one of Paramount's most talked-about new stars, largely by virtue of her loan-out to Goldwyn for the dual role of mother and daughter in Come and Get It (1936).
Late 1937 saw her achieve her long-held theatrical aspirations when she starred in the Group Theatre Broadway production of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy", a play in which she continued to tour for most of the second half of 1938 after its original Broadway run ended. However, starting in 1939, her erratic behavior and increased drinking started to make her less reliable and sought after. Though she starred in two big budget 1940 films after walking out of a Broadway-bound play by Ernest Hemingway, by 1941 her star had fallen considerably at Paramount and she was consigned mostly to co-starring appearances. Though her late 1941 performance in Fox's Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) was outstanding and critically praised, by 1942 her alcoholism and increasing mental instability led Paramount to cancel her contract.
In October 1942, she was arrested for driving with her headlights on bright in a wartime dim-out zone and was subsequently charged with DUI. When she failed to completely pay her bail, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest in early 1943, almost simultaneously with an assault charge against her being filed by a studio hairdresser. Her arrest on these charges ultimately led to her being placed in a private institution in southern California.
Her mother subsequently obtained guardianship and had Frances committed to Washington's Western State Hospital for the first time for a few months in 1944. Two other commitments followed, one for several months in 1945-46, and the longest from April 1946 to March 1950. Frances was released in 1950 and took a hotel laundry job in Seattle to help support her parents. In 1954, she married Seattle utility worker "Alfred Lobley", but quickly left him and moved secretly to Eureka, California, where she worked anonymously for several years in a photo studio. In 1957, she was discovered by a talent agent who promoted her and was able to revive her career, including appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (The Ed Sullivan Show) and This Is Your Life (1950), as well as a Paramount film and several live television dramas. In 1958, Frances moved to Indianapolis where she was hired by NBC affiliate WFBM to host an afternoon movie/interview program, Frances Farmer Presents (1958), which was rated number 1 in its time slot for the six years of its run. By 1964, her alcoholism had become so acute that WFBM fired her. She spent her final years operating several small businesses, usually with her friend "Jean Ratcliffe", until she died from esophageal cancer in 1970.
Frances' story only became more infamous after her death with the publication of her ghost-written "autobiography" (actually written by Ratcliffe) "Will There Really Be A Morning?" in 1972, and even more-so with the "fictionalized" biography "Shadowland" released in 1978, which was the primary source for the feature film Frances (1982). Though "Shadowland"s author William Arnold admitted in a court case that many of the incidents depicted in his book were fabricated, including the infamous lobotomy, his version of her life went largely unquestioned despite vigorous opposition from many sources, including members of the Farmer family and physicians and nurses at Western State, where Frances was hospitalized. More incisive and critical analysis of his claims has been published within the last several years, debunking most of the more sensational allegations he put forth, most notably the lobotomy. Frances' sister, "Edith Farmer Elliot", self-published what is probably the most complete and authoritative biography of Frances currently available, "Look Back in Love".- IMDb Mini Biography By: JMK56
- SpousesLeland Mikesell(March 27, 1958 - August 1, 1970) (her death)Alfred Lobley(April 17, 1954 - March 7, 1958) (divorced)Leif Erickson(February 8, 1936 - June 12, 1942) (divorced)
- ChildrenNo Children
- RelativesWesley(Sibling)Edith Farmer Elliot(Sibling)
- Director Howard Hawks said he considered her the best actress he ever worked with.
- Her rise and tragic fall were documented in the film Frances (1982) with Jessica Lange in the lead role. She received an Academy Award nomination for best actress for her performance.
- For her very special tribute appearance on This Is Your Life (1950), Frances was given an automobile - an Edsel.
- She was the subject of the song "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" in the 1993 album "In-Utero" by the grunge rock band Nirvana.
- The actress was the subject of several theater plays: "The Frances Farmer Story" by Sebastian Stuart, "Golden Girl" by Peter Occhiogrosso and "Saint Frances of Hollywood" by Sally Clarke.
- [on her experience as a mental patient] Never console yourself into believing that the terror has passed, for it looms as large and evil today as it did in the despicable era of Bedlam. But I must relate the horrors as I recall them, in the hope that some force for mankind might be moved to relieve forever the unfortunate creatures who are still imprisoned in the back wards of decaying institutions.
- [on her reaction to her high school essay "God Dies"] It was pretty sad, because for the first time, I found how stupid people could be. It sort of made me feel alone in the world. The more people pointed at me in scorn, the more stubborn I got, and when they began calling me the Bad Girl of West High School, I tried to live up to it.
- [on Hollywood] It's a nuthouse. The other day, a man phoned and wanted me to endorse a certain brand of cigarettes. I had nothing against them and in fact will smoke them or anything else that comes along, but I didn't know why he was bothering me. I though maybe if I was nice, they'd give me a carton and a thank offering, so I rather tentatively broached the matter of remuneration. What was the endorsement worth, I asked, and he said three thousand dollars. What are you going to do in an atmosphere like that?
- What they had me doing first was autographing copies of "Come and Get It" at the Bon Marche, where I had been fired a couple of years back. That was bad enough but think of me autographing a book written by somebody else. That took crust but it didn't turn out so badly because when I got to the store, about twenty people finally strolled in and look at me from a distance and kept their buying firmly in control. What the Goldwyn people had forgotten was that up that way I'm still remembered as the freak from West Seattle High.
- I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was...nothingness.
- Come and Get It (1936) - $75 /week
- Too Many Parents (1936) - $100 /week
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