20th Cent. Frances Farmer

Frances Elena Farmer was born on 19 September 1913, in Seattle, Washington, USA. She was the daughter of Lillian Van Ornum Farmer and Ernest Melvin Farmer. She had two siblings, a brother, Wesley Farmer and a sister, Edith Farmer. According to Frances Farmer; "I went to Sunday School and liked the stories about Christ and the Christmas star. They were beautiful. They made you warm and happy to think about. But I didn't believe them." And; "The Sunday School teacher talked too much in the way our grade school teacher used to when she told us about George Washington. Pleasant, pretty stories, but not true." She attended the West Seattle High School. In 1931, she won a writing contest with her essay God Dies from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She recalled; "The more people pointed at me in scorn the more stubborn I got and when they began calling me the Bad Girl of West Seattle High, I tried to live up to it." She continued her education with drama studies at the University of Washington. In the fall of 1934, Farmer appeared on stage in Alien Corn at the University of Washington. In 1935, she won a trip to see the Moscow Art Theater, in Moscow, the Soviet Union from the newspaper The Voice of Action. She signed a 7 year contract with Paramount on 19 September 1935, in New York. Frances Farmer married the actor Leif Erickson in February 1936. In 1936, Farmer made her film debut as Sally Colman in Too Many Parents. In 1936, she also starred as Lotta Morgan in Come and Get It, Anne Blane in Border Flight and Doris Halliday in Rhythm on the Range with Bing Crosby. In 1937, as Faith Wishart in Ebb Tide, Vina Swain in Exclusive and Josie Mansfield in The Toast of New York with Cary Grant. In 1938, as Trina in Ride a Crooked Mile. In 1940, Ruby Taylor in South of Pago Pago and Linda Chalme in Flowing Gold. In 1941, as Calamity Jane in Badlands of Dakota, Kitty Carr in World Premiere opposite John Barrymore and Elaine Raden  in Among the Living. In 1942, as Isabel Blake in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney (1920-1991). Farmer and Erickson were divorced in 1942. Frances Farmer was stopped by the police on 19 October 1942, in Santa Monica for driving with headlights on bright in the wartime blackout zone. She was fined $500, paid  $250. By January 1943, she had failed to pay the rest and was ordered arrested. After she was sentenced to 180 days in jail, she was transferred to the psychiatric ward of L.A. General Hospital. She was later sent to the San Fernando Valley and the Kimball Sanitarium in La Crescenta. In 1943, Farmer appeared in I Escaped from the Gestapo. Her mother, Lillian Farmer later had Frances Farmer committed to Western State Hospital, in Steilacoom, Washington. In the summer of 1944, she was released. In May 1945, she was recommitted to the Western State Hospital. She was released from the hospital on 25 March 1950. She later stated; "I was raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats and poisoned by tainted food. I was chained in padded cells, strapped into strait-jackets and half drowned in ice baths." She continued; "If a person is treated like a patient, they are apt to act like one." And; "I didn't think then, and I still don't, that I was actually sick." Frances Farmer married her second husband, Alfred Lobley in 1951. In August 1957, Farmer appeared on stage in The Chalk Garden, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. In 1958, she starred as Mrs. Bickford in The Party Crashers. Farmer and Lobley were divorced in 1958. Frances Farmer married her third husband, Leland Mikesell in 1958. From 1958 to 1964, she hosted the TV show Frances Farmer Presents. In 1959, she was christened in the Roman Catholic faith, in St. Joan of Arc Church, in Indianapolis. Farmer and Mikesell were divorced in 1963. According to Farmer; "I have learned that to have a good friend is the purest of all God's gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange of payment." And; "I used to lie between cool, clean sheets at night after I'd had a bath, after I had washed my hair and scrubbed my knuckles and finger-nails and teeth. Then I could lie quite still in the dark with my face to the window with the trees in it, and talk to God." Frances Farmer died of cancer aged 56, on 1 August 1970, in Fishers, Indiana. She was buried at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery, in Fishers, Indiana. In 1973, her autobiography Will There Really Be A Morning? was published. In 1979, Edith Farmer Elliot published her biography of Frances Farmer, Look Back in Love.

"There comes a point when a dream becomes reality and reality becomes a dream." Frances Farmer
Source: Will There Really Be A Morning? by Frances Farmer.