Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913 â€" August 1, 1970) was an
American actress and television hostess. She appeared in over a dozen
feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered
notoriety for the various sensationalized accounts of her life,
especially her involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals and
subsequent mental health struggles.A native of Seattle, Washington,
Farmer began acting in stage productions while a student at the
University of Washington. After graduating, she began performing in
stock theater before signing a film contract with Paramount Pictures
on her 22nd birthday in September 1935. She made her film debut in the
B film Too Many Parents (1936), followed by another B picture, Border
Flight, before being given the lead role opposite Bing Crosby in the
musical western Rhythm on the Range (1936). Unhappy with the
opportunities the studio gave her, Farmer returned to stock theater in
1937 before being cast in the original Broadway production of Clifford
Odets's Golden Boy, staged by New York City's Group Theatre. She
followed this with two Broadway productions directed by Elia Kazan in
1939, but a battle with depression and binge drinking caused her to
drop out of a subsequent Ernest Hemingway stage adaptation.Farmer
returned to Los Angeles, earning supporting roles in the comedy World
Premiere (1941) and the film noir Among the Living (1941). In 1942,
publicity of her reportedly erratic behavior began to surface, and
after several arrests and committals to psychiatric institutions,
Farmer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the request of
her family, particularly her mother, she was committed to an
institution in her home state of Washington, where she remained a
patient until 1950. Farmer attempted an acting comeback, mainly
appearing as a television host in Indianapolis on her own series,
Frances Farmer Presents. Her final film role was in the 1958 drama The
Party Crashers, after which she spent the majority of the 1960s
occasionally performing in local theater productions staged by Purdue
University. In the spring of 1970, she was diagnosed with esophageal
cancer, of which she died several months later, aged 56.
American actress and television hostess. She appeared in over a dozen
feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered
notoriety for the various sensationalized accounts of her life,
especially her involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals and
subsequent mental health struggles.A native of Seattle, Washington,
Farmer began acting in stage productions while a student at the
University of Washington. After graduating, she began performing in
stock theater before signing a film contract with Paramount Pictures
on her 22nd birthday in September 1935. She made her film debut in the
B film Too Many Parents (1936), followed by another B picture, Border
Flight, before being given the lead role opposite Bing Crosby in the
musical western Rhythm on the Range (1936). Unhappy with the
opportunities the studio gave her, Farmer returned to stock theater in
1937 before being cast in the original Broadway production of Clifford
Odets's Golden Boy, staged by New York City's Group Theatre. She
followed this with two Broadway productions directed by Elia Kazan in
1939, but a battle with depression and binge drinking caused her to
drop out of a subsequent Ernest Hemingway stage adaptation.Farmer
returned to Los Angeles, earning supporting roles in the comedy World
Premiere (1941) and the film noir Among the Living (1941). In 1942,
publicity of her reportedly erratic behavior began to surface, and
after several arrests and committals to psychiatric institutions,
Farmer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the request of
her family, particularly her mother, she was committed to an
institution in her home state of Washington, where she remained a
patient until 1950. Farmer attempted an acting comeback, mainly
appearing as a television host in Indianapolis on her own series,
Frances Farmer Presents. Her final film role was in the 1958 drama The
Party Crashers, after which she spent the majority of the 1960s
occasionally performing in local theater productions staged by Purdue
University. In the spring of 1970, she was diagnosed with esophageal
cancer, of which she died several months later, aged 56.
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