* 19.9. 1913, Seattle, Washington - † 1 August 1970, Indianapolis In.

Lawyer's daughter, she excelled as a high school student and during her studies at the University of Washington won a trip to the Soviet Union as first prize for an essay she submitted in competition to a radical magazine. She made her screen debut in 1936 and the following year began a concurrent stage career with the Group Theatre in New York, playing the female lead in Golden Boy and other Broadway productions of the late 30s. Talented as well as beautiful, she seemed to be headed for a promising career on the stage and in films, but the problem of alcoholism brought her into frequent conflict with the law and forced her retirement in 1942. She spent a good part of the 40s in various mental institutions and by the late 50s was well enough to appear in a single film and to host a local TV program in Indianapolis. She died of cancer at 57. An autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning?, was published posthumously in 1972. The first (1934-42) of her three husbands was actor Leif Erickson.

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Filmografie Frances Farmer

1936   Border Flight  .... Anne Blane

1936   Rhythm on the Range  .... Doris Halliday

1936   Too Many Parents  .... Sally Colman

1936   Come and Get It/Roaring Timbers.... Lotta Morgan/Lotta Bostrom

1937   Exclusive  .... Vina Swain

1937   The Toast of New York  .... Josie Mansfield   

1937   Ebb Tide  .... Faith Wishart

1938   Ride a Crooked Mile/Escape from Yesterday .... Trina     

1940   Flowing Gold  .... Linda Chalmers

1940   South of Pago Pago  .... Ruby Taylor

1941   Among the Living  .... Elaine Raden      

1941   Badlands of Dakota  .... Calamity Jane

1941   World Premiere  .... Kitty Carr   

1942   Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake  .... Isabel Blake       

1943   I Escaped from the Gestapo/NO ESCAPE  .... (montage sequence)

1958   The Party Crashers  .... Mrs. Bickford

Francis (1943) wordt onder zichtbare invloed van alcohol en medicijnen verhoord op het politiebureau. De actrice die enkele jaren eerder door de Paramount stydio’s bij het publiek was geïntroduceerd als ‘de ster van de toekomst’, moet zich na deze zoveelste arrestatie voor onderzoek in een psychiatrische kliniek melden. Daar zal ze ‘gek’ worden verklaard en gedurende vijf jaar worden opgesloten.