The Sad Life and Death of Frances Farmer
759Frances Farmer was an American actress and television hostess, acclaimed by Cecil B. de Mille as the screen’s outstanding find of 1936 and by Howard Hawks as the greatest actress he had ever worked with.
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She appeared in over a dozen feature films over the course of her career. It was in 1935 that Frances Farmer made an incredibly significant decision. At 22 years of age, Farmer moved from Seattle to New York. This was in the hopes of launching a successful career in theater. Farmer was always more interested in stage acting, but she ended up being signed into a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.
From 1936 to 1958, Farmer appeared in 15 films alongside stars like Cary Grant and Bing Crosby. With the desire of being taken seriously as an actress, she traveled to upstate New York in order to participate in summer stock. It was here that she caught the attention of American playwright, director, and screenwriter, Clifford Odets. He offered Farmer a part in his play, Golden Boy. She was praised in the reviews of the play’s national tour, enabling her to continue her work in the theater. Due to this, she spent only a few months of the year making movies in Los Angeles.
In 1957, she appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, an American television variety show hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. Despite such talent and praise, she became more well known for the various sensationalized accounts of her life, in particular her involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals, as well as her substance addiction.
The life of actress Frances Farmer has been subject to dramatic fictionalization. But the truth of her life is much darker. So join us as we take a look at the truth behind the legacy of Frances Farmer.
The Sad Life and Death of Frances Farmer