Frances Farmer, September 19, 1913 - August 1, 1970

Frances Farmer was born in 1913 in Seattle. She died in 1970, esophageal cancer.

Meanwhile, she had one of the worst lives imaginable!!! She was a beautiful Hollywood star in the late thirties. Best known for the 1936 films Come and Get It and Rhythm on the Range

But! She refused to play the Hollywood game, either professionally or socially. She claimed to hate Tinseltown-except for the money-and honed her acting skills in the Group Theatre (beginning in 1937), eventually embarking on an ill-fated affair with author Clifford Odets. Rebellious and contemptuous, she was eventually dropped by Paramount, and the quality of her vehicles diminished.

Her descent into hell began one night in 1942, with a traffic ticket for drunk driving. Not one to keep her mouth shut, Farmer allowed the incident to degenerate into a shoving match, which ended with her being dragged off to jail. Farmer continued her tirade at her hearing, whereupon she was sentenced to 180 days in jail. When she was refused a phone call upon leaving the court, she became hysterical, and after much punching and kicking, was sent to a cell in a straitjacket!

In prison Farmer was no more cooperative with the law than she was on the outside, and soon her erratic behavior landed her in a sanitarium. She was legally declared mentally incompetent by none other than her own mother, and sentenced to an asylum in her home state of Washington!

Drugged with insulin and brutally treated by the asylum guards, Farmer's "treatment" even included a partial lobotomy!

She was deemed well enough to return to work (outside of Hollywood, of course) in the 1950s, and she briefly hosted a TV show based in Indianapolis. Farmer is a cult figure now and was the subject of the Nirvana song "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle".

Films
The Party Crashers (1958) .... Mrs. Bickford
I Escaped from the Gestapo (1943) .... (montage sequence)
Son of Fury (1942) .... Isabel Blake
Among the Living (1941) .... Elaine Raden
World Premiere (1941) .... Kitty Carr
Badlands of Dakota (1941) .... Calamity Jane
South of Pago Pago (1940) .... Ruby
Flowing Gold (1940) .... Linda Chalmers
Ride a Crooked Mile (1938) .... Trina
Exclusive (1937) .... Vina Swain
Ebb Tide (1937) .... Faith Wishart
Toast of New York, The (1937) .... Josie Mansfield
Too Many Parents (1936) .... Sally Colman
Come and Get It (1936) .... Lotta Bostrom/Lotta Morgan
Rhythm on the Range (1936) .... Doris Halliday
Border Flight (1936) .... Ann Blane

TV
"Today" (1952) playing "Herself" 4/1964
"Frances Farmer Presents" (1958) TV Series .... Hostess (1958-1964)
"Studio One" (1948) playing "Sarah Walker" in episode: "Tongues of Angels" (episode # 10.24) 3/17/1958
"This Is Your Life" (1952) 1/29/1958
"Special Agent 7" (1958) 1958
"Toast of the Town" (1948) playing "Herself" 10/27/1957
"Toast of the Town" (1948) playing "Herself" 6/30/1957
"Playhouse 90" (1956) in episode: "Reunion" 1957