Gene Tierney

(1920 - 1991)

The actress Gene Tierney, best known for the 1944 film noir Laura, largely retired from acting at age forty-four. She suffered from major depression and endured shock therapy, which she later blamed for her wavering memories. “I had been invited in 1956 to the inauguration of President Eisenhower. That memory was just about the last I had until I woke up one day and wondered how it happened to be 1959,” she wrote in her autobiography, which was pieced together with the help of family and friends. “I didn’t know who was running the government. I didn’t know that Russia and the United States had fired rockets into space. I didn’t know who Elvis Presley was, or the names of any new books or songs or movies.”