5/7/2023 0 Comments Self portrait by gene tierneyCloser to home was 1942’s Thunder Birds, in which Tierney starred as a socialite however, she was just as quickly returned to more exotic fare later that same year for China Girl. Inexplicably and wholly inappropriately, she was cast as a native girl in three consecutive features: Sundown, The Shanghai Gesture, and Son of Fury. Fox remained impressed with her skills, but critics consistently savaged her work. She then starred as the titular Belle Starr. The lead in MGM’s National Velvet was offered her, but when the project was delayed Tierney signed with Fox, where in 1940 she made her film debut opposite Henry Fonda in the Fritz Lang Western The Return of Frank James.Ī small role in Hudson’s Bay followed before Tierney essayed her first major role in John Ford’s 1940 drama Tobacco Road. However, after the studio failed to find her a project, she returned to New York to star on-stage in The Male Animal. A six-month contract was then offered by Columbia, which she accepted. The studio offered a contract, but the salary was so low that her parents dissuaded her from signing instead, Tierney pursued a stage career, making her Broadway debut in 1938’s Mrs. Tierney was educated in Connecticut and Switzerland she traveled in social circles, and at a party met Anatole Litvak, who was so stunned by her beauty that he requested she screen test at Warner Bros.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |