The Many Hollywood Scandals Of Frances Farmer
In 1935, a 22-year-old Seattle native named Frances Farmer arrived in Los Angeles hoping to be a star. But her life would become a series of Hollywood scandals involving alcohol abuse, violence, and stints at psychiatric hospitals.
Wikimedia CommonsThis photo of Frances Farmer at a 1943 court hearing shocked the public.
From the beginning, Farmer seemed ill at ease with life in Hollywood. Although she starred alongside big names like Bing Crosby and Carey Grant, she began to develop a reputation as being aloof, strong-headed, and difficult to work with. Her studio tried to spin this into an advantage by marketing her as “the star who would not go Hollywood.”
But no amount of spin could mask Farmer’s public unraveling. In 1942, she was arrested for driving drunk with her headlights blazing during a wartime blackout. Then, Farmer allegedly spat at her arresting officer: “You bore me.” Soon afterward, while filming in Mexico, she was charged with drunk and disorderly conduct.
According to the Evening Independent, she later admitted she’d been drinking “everything I could get my hands on, including Benzedrine.”
From there, things only got worse when Farmer’s family committed her to a series of psychiatric hospitals. There, the actress claimed she was, “raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats and poisoned by tainted food…chained in padded cells, strapped into straitjackets and half-drowned in ice baths.”
One biographer even stated that Farmer was subject to a lobotomy, though he later admitted that he’d made that part up.
Nevertheless, Farmer emerged from the hospital in 1950 hoping to return to the acting world.
“I blame nobody for my fall,” she said in 1957. “I had to face agonizing decisions when I was younger. The decisions broke me.”
Yet Farmer continued to struggle with alcohol and died in 1970 of esophageal cancer. Sadly, she’s better known today for her Hollywood scandals than her sparkle on the silver screen.
