Linda Darnell
| Linda Darnell | |
|---|---|
1940s
|
|
| Born |
Monetta Eloyse Darnell October 16, 1923 Dallas, Texas, United States |
| Died | April 10, 1965 (aged 41) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Burns sustained in house fire |
| Resting place | Union Hill Cemetery |
| Occupation | Actress, Singer |
| Years active | 1939–1965 |
| Spouse(s) |
Peverell Marley (m.1944-1952) 1 child Phillip Liebmann (m.1954-1955) Merle Roy Robertson (m.1960-1963) |
| Partner(s) | Giuliano Scicolone (1956–1960) |
| Children | Charlotte Mildred Adams (b. 1948) adopted |
Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell, October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American film actress. Darnell progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theater and film as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big-budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).
Monetta Eloyse Darnell was born in Dallas, Texas, as one of four children (excluding her mother's two children from an earlier marriage), to postal clerk Calvin Roy Darnell (1888-1967) and the former Pearl Brown (1892-1966). She was the younger sister of Undeen (born March 1918) and the older sister of Monte Maloya (born 1929) and Calvin Roy, Jr. (born 1930). Her parents were not happily married, and she grew up as a shy and reserved girl in a house of domestic turmoil. Starting at an early age, her mother Pearl had big plans for Darnell in the entertainment industry. She believed that Linda was her only child with potential as an actress and ignored the rearing of her other children.
According to her siblings, Darnell enjoyed the limelight and shared her mother's dream. Darnell herself, though, once commented: "Mother really shoved me along, spotting me in one contest after another. I had no great talent, and I didn't want to be a movie star particularly. But Mother had always wanted it for herself, and I guess she attained it through me." One elocution teacher recalled: "[Darnell] didn't stand out particularly, except that she was so sweet and considerate. In her theater work she wasn't outstanding. But her mother was right behind her everywhere she went."
Unlike her husband, Pearl had a notorious reputation in the neighborhood of being "aggressive" or "downright mean". Despite some financial problems, Darnell insisted on having had a joyful childhood and loving parents. Darnell was a model by the age of 11 and was acting on the stage by the age of 13. She initially started modeling to earn money for the household, and performed mostly in beauty contests.
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