Frances Farmer

Frances Farmer is one of Hollywood's most tragic figures. In 1936, she made her feature-film debut. One year later, she defied the studios and simultaneously began appearing on stage with New York's Group Theater, where she played the female lead in Golden Boy and other Broadway plays of the late '30s. After gaining great critical praise for her dual role in the film Come and Get It (1936), Farmer became a sensation, and it was expected that she would become Paramount's greatest star. However, she suffered from alcoholism and mental illness and had some run-ins with the law, forcing her retirement in 1942. Declared insane, Farmer went on to spend seven years in various mental-health hospitals before attempting a comeback in the '50s, when she worked in stock, appeared in one film, and made some TV appearances, including the hosting of a local TV program in Indianapolis. She died of cancer at 57. She was married from 1934-42 to actor Leif Erickson. Her autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning? was published posthumously, and she became the subject of two books. Her life was also the subject of two off-Broadway plays, a TV movie starring Susan Blakely (Committed), and the film Frances (1982), for which Jessica Lange (in the title role) received a "Best Actress" Oscar nomination.