What actresses have suffered greatly?

An extra looked me in the eye once.

Poor Viola.

MISS Helen Lawson

Gene Tierney suffered from depression and contemplated suicide.

Me.

Thread closed.

Amanda Bynes.

Inger Stevens

The bipolar twins: Vivien and Gene

Eight replies an no one's mentioned Brendad?

Judy Garland-

Menninger's in Topeka

Peter Brent Brigham

1967-1969

She had suffering down pat!

I wanna be put away like a shut in.

Well, keep acting up. You'll make it.

Mischa

Regina King? Only child commits suicide.

Jennifer Jones

Why can't you treat me with the respect that I'm ENTITLED TO??????

Ahem - not much of an actress but still - Britney.

Frances Farmer

Zelda Fitzgerald

Veronica Lake

Angela Basset Hound

Linda Darnell

Susan Peters

Capucine

Suzan Ball

A LIFETIME OF HEARTBRAK

Hey! I was MOLESTED, or hadn't you heard?

I read a biography on Patricia Neal, years ago, and she suffered a lot of health problems. She had more than one stroke, and had problems recovering.

R25, She also endured the death of a young child, serious injuries to another child by an accident and later her husband left her to marry his mistress.

R22, Suzan and Lucy were cousins.

R24, I have unfortunately seen “Grease 2.” You, ma’am, are no actress.

Two ungrateful, spoiled children who sullied her reputation with half truths and bitterness.

Actresses were jealous of her beauty and fame.

Actors who couldn't satisfy her sexually.

Studio execs who discarded her much too early.

R29, Who?

Jean Seberg. I think she committed suicide because of Clint Eastwood and a Black Panther.

R31, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI had a hand in her suicide.

Rita Hayworth

[quote][R24], I have unfortunately seen “Grease 2.” You, ma’am, are no actress.

Clearly you have overlooked my chef d'oeuvre - my turn as Nurse Libby Kegler on "Trapper John, M.D."

Marilyn Monroe. I think the Kennedys killed her.

Mariska

Glen...always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Lana Turner was allegedly given an abortion without anesthesia.

Lucy was going to suffer greatly but Gary talked her out of it.

Romy Schneider

Gene Tierney's story about the source of her child's mental retardation always strikes me as one of the most tragic.

Tierney came down with scarlet fever while she was pregnant during the war, and the child was born with mental retardation as result, which caused Tierney much heartache. She never knew how she contracted the illness, until a few years later, a fan came up to her and revealed that Tierney had been her favorite star for years and years, so much so that during the war the fan sneaked out of quarantine when she was sick with scarlet fever and got Tierney to sign her autograph book, "and then you actually let me kiss you!" Tierney knew then the source of her child's terrible handicap, and wrote later, "Suddenly I didn't care if I were anyone's favorite star ever again." She had a complete mental breakdown and was institutionalized.

When Tierney wrote about this in a memoir, Agatha Christie (somewhat heartlessly) turned it into the plot of a Miss Marple murder mystery, THE MIRROR CRACK'D.

You won't believe this, but I actually was denied the chance to wear the tiara with the big emeralds [italic]to my own wedding.[/italic]

I had to wear one instead that just had diamonds. It was so humiliating.

R42. Thank you so much for sharing that story about Gene Tierney. I had no idea.

Gene Tierney always wins these posts.

Sadly

I would have said Rita Hayworth until I read this thread. Damn.

I want to say props to all you eldergays for being so discrete and respectful about what you saw and heard while sharing the looney bin with these suffering goddesses.

TV's Sweetheart

I'm worried about Suze, she hasn't posted in an age...I hope she's okay

What about DK fave, Miss Patty Duke?

D'oh. DL fave ^^^

Can victims of bad plastic surgery participate in this thread?

"All my life I had to fight"

Seven years with Betty White.

Margot Kidder

Margaux Hemingway.

Mackenzie Phillips.

I had several nervous breakdowns, vacillated between calling myself lesbian or bisexual, claimed I was molested by my gay father, endured a mother that runs a ministry to pray the gay away, and had some sort of mental break where I drove manically through a densely populated part of LA until I drove right into a house, set it and myself on fire.

Sandra Dee

[quote]I want to say props to all you eldergays for being so discrete

Oh, dear.

I think that the fan that ambushed Gene Tierney had German measles not scarlet fever......

Patty Duke

R10 She thought she was an Indian for a while.

R61 is correct.

I had to stand by as my little sister won an Academy Award I was also nominated for! I had to tell the little backward thing to get her fake-humble ass up on stage to accept It and I had to smile like I was glad.

(As told to Robert Osborne.)

Gene Tierney had every right to bitch slap that cunt for destroying her daughter’s life like that.

Gail Russell (The Uninvited). Became an alcoholic (supposedly mentored in the habit by actress Helen Walker). Injured several people in drunk driving accidents. Dead at 36.

Helen Walker (Nightmare Alley). Was in an accident after picking up 3 male hitchhikers on the way from Palm Springs to LA. . The car overturned 7 times. One was killed. The 2 survivors claimed she was driving recklessly and sued her. She herself spent a month in the hospital recovering. Continued her acting career but later died after a very long battle with cancer, at 47.

Susan Peters (Random Harvest) who was shot and had her spinal cord injured in a hunting accident. Later performed in a wheelchair but ended up with clinical depression and started starving herself. Died at 31.

I don't have any proof to back this up, but Bridgette Fonda has suffered greatly at the hands of Danny Elfman.

R68, Gail Russell was the inspiration for Jane Fonda’s character in “The Morning After”.

R70 I never saw it. I will check it out.

Gail was introverted and shy to a fault. She hated industry events and the way her studio had her go on dates with man she didn’t know.

Gail Russell was married to DL fave Guy Madison from 1949-1954.

Guy and Gail.

Nicole- the miscarriage, the adopted children

I suffered greatly at the hands of abusive boyfriends and johns, and I am not ashamed!

R68 see r20.

Dorothy Dandridge. Tragic.

I had to deal with Ann Miller's hoarding.

Gloria Swanson. Wallace Beery raped her on their wedding night. And when she became pregnant, he beat her until she miscarried.

R74 Never noticed before how crooked his nose was.

Frances Farmer.

Paula Prentiss and her sister Amy.

Clara Blandick (Auntie Em)- multiple health issues- she chose suicide.

Suffering from severe arthritis and impending blindness, Blandick fixed her hair, dressed up in her best outfit, placed her favorite photos and memorabilia around her room and took her own life by taking an overdose of sleeping tablets and putting a plastic bag over her head for good measure.

Farah Fawcett

G.

Peg Entwistle

Christina Crawford

Barbara La Marr

Marie Prevost

Alma Rubens

Helen Lawson’s forgotten baby sister, Thelma.

I don't think Susan Hayward had a very happy life.

This is a good compendium of tragic actress stories.

I always wondered what Margaret O'Brien did for a living after her career peaked at something like 11. I know she did a TV show of some kind, and a few movies like Heller In Pink Tights, with Sophia Loren. Was she a housewife? Did she suffer?

R92, She was recently photographed sitting in what appeared to be a shelter.

R92, Margaret was married to steel executive Roy Thorvald Thorsen (I think he died in 2018), and lived in Thousand Oaks, CA. I think he made good money to support a family, while she continued a career making tv guest spots, public appearances, and signing autographs.

R94, Which would explain why the media recently discovered her in a shelter looking like a bag lady?

R93, R95, Miss O'Brien was photographed at the Thousand Oaks Community Center under a mandatory evacuation order due to the Woolsey Fire that threatened her home. She grabbed what she could.

Her Thousand Oaks home at La Peresa Drive sold for $1.25 million in 2020.

R96, That’s peanuts in California real estate terms these days.

Did someone say peanuts?

Carole Landis

Rachel Roberts

Formerly Mrs. Rex Harrison, whose death was ruled a suicide.

Inger Stevens

Sally Struthers

R23, I love the word HEARTBRAK. It reminds me of CAK and BEARKING and PRON.

I saw Margaret on an online interview show recently, looking old but still kicking. The reason for the shelter was explained.

[Quote] Which would explain why the media recently discovered her in a shelter looking like a bag lady?

jumping to conclusions😁😆🤣

Inger Stevens dead at 35

[quote]Lana Turner was allegedly given an abortion without anesthesia.

Excuse me, my name is Cheryl Crane!

Jeanne Eagels

Elizabeth Hartman from A Patch of Blue jumped out a window.

Don't any of you know how many men have raped me?

It's a dishease, Larry.

Margaret Sullavan was one the greatest of all Hollywood actresses in the 1930s and early 1940s--she had an absolute ethereal charm in comedies, but was also superb in melodramas. In 1943, she took a seven-year break from acting to have children, but when she returned in 1950 she had mostly lost her looks, and suffered from increasing deafness. This began to result in depression and substance abuse, and in 1960 she died of an "accidental" overdose of barbiturates.

R112 Don't mean to correct you but after her 1943 film (Cry Havoc) Sullavan starred in The Voice Of The Turtle on Broadway from 1943 - 1944, and then in London, so she was not completely retired, she just wasn't making movies.

Elizabeth Hartman She received an Oscar nomination for A Patch of Blue in 1966 the year Julie Christie took home the prize.

Throughout much of her life, Hartman suffered from depression. In 1978, she was treated at The Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1984, she divorced her husband, screenwriter Gill Dennis, after a five-year separation. In the last few years of her life, she gave up acting altogether and worked at a museum in Pittsburgh while receiving treatment for her condition at an outpatient clinic. In 1981, she returned to theater, portraying Myrtle Brown in a regional stage production of Morning's at Seven. Her sister and caretaker, Janet, told the Los Angeles Times:

She was very suicidal... As soon as I arrived, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and was rushed to intensive care. But, the next night, she appeared on stage, and she was wonderful. I spent two weeks with her to try to get her to the theater every night. She was frightened of everyone and everything. We'd go to breakfast, and she'd get up and dash out as though somebody was after her.

On June 10, 1987, Hartman died after jumping from the window of her fifth-floor apartment. Earlier that morning, she had reportedly called her psychiatrist saying that she felt despondent. Hartman was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in her hometown.

[quote][R112] Don't mean to correct you but after her 1943 film (Cry Havoc) Sullavan starred in The Voice Of The Turtle on Broadway from 1943 - 1944, and then in London, so she was not completely retired, she just wasn't making movies

You're correct. Thanks for pointing that out.

Elizabeth Hartman in a change of pace role in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

R112, Sullavan died in a New Haven hotel room where she was appearing in a play headed for Broadway.

Producer Martin Gabel replaced her with his wife, DL icon Arlene Francis, but the play closed soon after its Broadway opening.

Hattie McDaniel.

Sullivan was also occasionally good at making other people suffer, such as her first husband Henry Fonda. She had an affair with Jed Harris, I think. Fonda said he stood outside looking up at Harris’s apartment until the lights went out each night. However they remained friends after their divorce. A few years later, they nearly got back together. They even lived near each other after they were married to other people, and their children (with other spouses) were friends.

R119, yes Peter named his daughter Bridget after Sullivan's daughter Bridget Hayward who died by suicide right before her mother's death.

Billy Porter!

Barbara Payton

Margot Kidder

Anne Heche

R120 And Jane was friends with Brooke Hayward, who married Peter’s friend Dennis Hopper. (David Selznick, Jennifer Jones and Jennifer’s son Bob Walker Jr. were also in the mix. Dennis and Brooke lived with the Selznicks for a while, Bob W. Was friends with Peter and Dennis.

...Stoners.)

Ona Munson

Barbara Bates, Maggie McNamara and Elizabeth Hartman.

Sharon Stone had a stroke and lost custody of one of her kids.

[quote] Billy Porter!

Yes! That BITCH Anna Wintour would not give me my rightful due by placing me on the cover of Vogue!

Gene Tierney did not suffer more!

Jean Seberg

Capucine

Romy Schneider

Mabel Normand

[Quote] Sharon Stone had a stroke and lost custody of one of her kids.

Did she also lose track of her kids? She only has one!

My cleaning lady was once nearly 20 minutes late! I almost needed to be sedated. Why do these things always happen to me.

R131, Sharon has 3 sons, Roan, Laird, and Quinn.

r133 she lost primary custody of the first one. She then adopted two more on her own.

R119, Margaret Sullavan’s first husband was director William Wyler.

R135, Correction, Wyler was husband #2, Fonda was #1.

Sullavan sounded like a selfish heifer. But truth be told, Fonda was known to be a cold fish.

Sharon Tate

Definitely Judy Garland.

Charlize Theron. Abusive father, killed by Charlize's mother.

I was raped by EVERYONE!

What about Divine? She ate dog shit for her art. Can Meryl say the same thing?

Thelma Todd had quite a life! Ice cream blonde melted in a garage.

[quote] J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI had a hand in her suicide.

Bullshit. She made one movie that got noticed in the US and it was mainly because of her haircut. She wasn’t an influential person the FBI would bother to kill. Jane Fonda was far more famous, made headlines for her radical political beliefs all the time, married Chicago 7 defendant Tom Hayden and FBI didn’t suicide her. They sure as hell weren’t going to go all the way to France to kill some forgotten haircut lady for leftist beliefs.

R143, and yet it has been well-documented what the FBI did to her.

R143, You really should do some simple research before you publicly embarrass yourself with your ignorance.

Mike Wallace reports

R141 well, she did make SHE DEVIL, so there’s that…

Billy Porter

TheFBI spread rumors about S3berg, that’s well know. They spread rumors about everybody who was leftist. That doesn’t mean they killed her.

Let’s not forget how Buffy Ste Marie went around telling everyone LBJ was sabotaging her career when in fact it was her brother telling people she wasn’t Native American that stalled her career. After she threatened her bro with a lawsuit and false rumors of incest, he stopped talking about it and she was able to move her career along in Canada where no one could look for her birth certificate. Neither Buffy Ste Marie nor Jean Seberg were Martin Luther King or JFK.

Now Jane Fonda…she was a different story. She was a major Hollywood figure putting herself at the front of antiwar, anti-government demonstrations. She fully supported the Black Panthers and adopted two children of Panther members. Her father was a well known liberal Democrat who played union organizer Tom Joad in Grapes of Wrath, a character who resonated with millions of Americans wgoing through the Depression. It would’ve been worth it to the FBI for one or both to die in a plane crash or get assassinated by a disgruntled Vietnam veteran.

I was around at the time. It’s not something I “know nothing about.” The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yoko Ono, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Berrigan Brothers, Daniel Ellsberg, Angela Davis…all were far more influential antigovernment, antiwar activists than some actress who was already washed up in the US. Sure they’d spread rumors about her via their agents who were disguised as gossip columnists. But kill her? Hardly.

Virtually all gossip columnists in the US btw, were affiliated with the FBI if not directly working for them. All the way back to Winchell and Hedda Hopper. The Enquirer has been FBI affiliated since it became a Hollywood rag. The Black Panthers were so infiltrated by the FBI they had to shut down because the FBI couldn’t arrest its own agents for robberies they were planning. All the non-FBI Panthers were in prison or exile.

But a celebrity who lived in Europe and was no threat was murdered by FBI, while Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were running around the US scot free planning radical demonstrations? Please.

R149, No one said the FBI killed Jean Seberg, you idiot.

[Quote] She made one movie that got noticed in the US and it was mainly because of her haircut.

Before Breathless (1960) there was Otto Preminger's Saint Joan (1957) and Bonjour Tristesse (1958) the former got a lot of publicity when Seberg was chosen to play the role after a nationwide search and that attracted the attention of Jean Luc Godard. She was in1959s The Mouse That Roared starring Peter Sellers which was a huge hit. And during the next decade she made ay films in France and the US notably Lillith (1964) Airport (1970) and Paint Your Wagon (1969).

Rosamund Pinchot, another suicide.

Joyce Jameson

Paint Your Wagon and Airport were both profitable films, especially Airport, a huge hit.