Stars & Players · Biography

Linda Darnell

1923–1965 · Actor

Biography

Linda Darnell  (October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American film actress. Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). Furthermore, she won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949). Notorious for her unstable personal life, Darnell was incapable of dealing with Hollywood, and landed in a downward spiral of alcoholism, unsuccessful marriages and highly publicized or scandalous affairs. She failed to receive recognition from the industry and its critics, and disappeared from the screen in the 1950s. Darnell died from burns sustained in a house fire.

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Notable Noir Roles

No Way Out

1950Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz · Edie Johnson

Two hoodlum brothers are brought into hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one dies, the other accuses their Black doctor of murder.

The 13th Letter

1951Dir. Otto Preminger · Denise Turner

A new doctor in a quiet Quebec town sparks rumors and accusations when anonymous letters allege an affair with a married woman.

Second Chance

1953Dir. Rudolph Maté · Clare Shepperd, alias Clare Sinclair

A prize-fighting boxer with a lethal right punch falls for a gangster's moll on the run in Mexico.

Full Noir Filmography

3 films · 1950–1953