Gene Tierney

Turner Classic Movies continues its day-long salutes to noted actors.

Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, Gene Tierney is best-remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura (1944) and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven (1945).Other notable roles include Martha Strable Van Cleve in Heaven Can Wait (1943), Isabel Bradley Maturin in The Razor's Edge (1946), Lucy Muir in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Ann Sutton in Whirlpool (1949), Maggie Carleton McNulty in The Mating Season (1951) and Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955). Certain of her film-related material and personal papers are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, to which scholars and media experts from around the world may have full access.

Gene Tierney died in 1991, shortly before her 71st birthday, of emphysema in Houston, Texas. She had started smoking after a screening of her first movie to lower her voice because "I sound like an angry Minnie Mouse." She became a heavy smoker, which contributed to her death. She is interred next to Lee in the Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

In 1986, Tierney was honored alongside actor Gregory Peck with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival Spain for their body of work.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Tierney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Gene Tierney, one the most beautiful actresses in movie history, gets the honor Saturday. And endearing child star Margaret O’Brien receives the honor Sunday. (Tierney is shown in “The Shanghai Gesture.”)

Robert Ryan, one of Hollywood’s best actors, is saluted today. The Ryan salute includes “The Set-Up,” an excellent boxing drama, at 9:30 tonight, and “The Wild Bunch” at 1:15 a.m. Saturday.