Monetta Eloyse Darnell, better known as Linda Darnell (October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965), was a US film actress.

Born in Dallas, Texas and one of five children, Darnell was a model by the age of 11 and was acting in theater by the age of 13. She was chosen by a talent scout to go to Hollywood but was sent home to Dallas when they discovered she had lied about her age.

By 1939 she had returned to Hollywood and immediately began to secure good roles, appearing in such films as Blood and Sand , Hangover Square and My Darling Clementine. In 1947 she won the starring role in the highly anticipated Forever Amber. Publicity at the time suggested this would be the next Gone With The Wind, and the search for Amber was deliberately modelled on the extensive process that led to the casting of Scarlett O'Hara, but the film did not live up to its hype.

Darnell played two roles that earned her respect as an actress: as Daphne De Carter in the Preston Sturges comedy Unfaithfully Yours , opposite Rex Harrison, and as one of the three wives in A Letter to Three Wives. Darnell's hard-edged performance in the latter won her the best reviews of her career. She was widely tipped to win an Academy Award nomination for this part, but, when this did not happen, her career began to diminish and her film appearances were sporadic thereafter.

Darnell married twice. Her first husband was cameraman Peverell Marley, whom she married in 1943 and divorced in 1952; they had one adopted daughter, Charlotte, aka Lola (Lola Marley now lives in Charleston, South Carolina). In 1954, she married brewery heir Philip Leibmann; they divorced in 1955. Her third husband, Merle Roy Robertson, was a pilot; they married in 1957 and divorced in 1963. In addition to marital problems, Darnell had troubles with alcohol.

She died from burns received in a house fire in Chicago, Illinois, while staying with a friend. One of her old films was playing on television the night of the fire and Darnell fell asleep with a lit cigarette while watching it. She reportedly woke and tried to save her friend's child in the house -- the young girl had already escaped -- and instead was burned over 80 percent of her body. She died the next day. Her ashes are interred in the Union Hill Cemetery, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1631 Vine St.

Filmography

• Hotel for Women (1939)
• Day-Time Wife (1939)
• Star Dust (1940)
• Brigham Young - Frontiersman (1940)
• The Mark of Zorro (1940)
• Chad Hanna (1940)
• (1941) (short subject)
• Blood and Sand (1941)
• ] (1941)
• The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942)
• City Without Men (1943)
• Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
• The Song of Bernadette (1943)
• Buffalo Bill (1944)
• It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
• Summer Storm (1944)
• Sweet and Low-Down (1944)
• Hangover Square (1945)
• The All-Star Bond Rally (1945) (short subject)
• The Great John L. (1945)
• Fallen Angel (1945)
• Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
• Centennial Summer (1946)
• My Darling Clementine (1946)
• Forever Amber (1947)
• The Walls of Jericho (1948)
• Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
• A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
• Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
• Everybody Does It (1949)
• No Way Out (1950)
• Two Flags West (1950)
• The 13th Letter (1951)
• The Guy Who Came Back (1951)
• The Lady Pays Off (1951)
• Island of Desire (1952)
• Night Without Sleep (1952)
• Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952)
• Angels of Darkness (1953)
• Second Chance (1953)
• This Is My Love (1954)
• The Last Five Minutes (1954)
• Dakota Incident (1956)
• Homeward Borne (1957)
• Zero Hour! (1957)
• The Castilian (1963)
• Black Spurs (1965)

External links

• Linda Darnell .com
• IMDB page