Linda Darnell and Tyrone Power were two Golden Age stars that appeared together in numerous films, starting with 1939’s Day-Time Wife. In the film, the two stars played a couple having some trouble in their marriage. Though Linda and Tyrone were never married to each other, they certainly had a good deal of romantic problems over the course of their lives. Join Facts Verse as we explore how Linda Darnell and Tyrone Power were doomed the day they met.
Linda Darnell’s Early Life
Linda Darnell was born on October 16, 1923, to a big, unhappy family in Texas. Though her parents stayed together out of necessity, they despised each other. There was very little positivity in the Darnell household as Linda was growing up. Among the several children occupying the household, Linda was the one who received the most attention from her mother. However, this attention wasn’t positive. Linda’s mother wanted the young girl to become a star, and pushed her into show business at an early age.
Linda Darnell found herself paying the bill for her family via stage work when she was in her early teens. The young girl felt no confidence in her performances, but continued to act at the behest of her mother. By the age of 15, Linda’s mother had brought the young woman out to Hollywood to find success on the screen. She would end up finding that success rather quickly, thought it likely wasn’t for the best.
Linda ended up signing a contract with 20th Century Fox, and the 1939 production Hotel for Women become her on-screen debut. The film was a major success for the studio, and many more roles followed for the actress in a short timespan. However, along with this success, issues started to arise for Linda early on at 20th Century Fox. Most of these issues came as a result of studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who had found himself unhealthily infatuated with the teenage girl.
Darryl F. Zanuck Didn’t Care That Linda Was Underage
When Linda showed up in Hollywood, she claimed that she was 17. Darryl F. Zanuck saw right through the young woman’s lie, but ended up signing her anyway. As it came time to start publicizing the burgeoning actress, Darryl agreed that it was probably best to lie to the public about her age. However, instead of claiming that Linda was 17 years old, Darryl claimed that she was 19! With this, the 15-year-old Linda Darnell debuted to the public as a fully mature 19-year-old woman, and she was forced into some decidedly adult situations that she certainly wasn’t ready for.
The same year that Linda made her on-screen debut in Hotel for Women, she was given the chance to star alongside famous actor Tyrone Power as his romantic interest in the film Day-Time Wife. The film was another success for the actress, and it led to her and Tyrone being paired up in several more films. Many believe that Darryl F. Zanuck got off on watching the pairing of Linda and Tyrone, as Tyrone was much older than the underage actress. According to legend, Darryl forced Linda and Tyrone’s on-screen interactions to become increasingly explicit over the course of the performers’ professional relationship.
In 1940, Linda and Tyrone starred together in the film Brigham Young. This was the third of four films that the performers would star in together around the time period. The picture was said to have been 20th Century Fox’s most expensive at the time, and it’s success arguably represented the peak of Linda’s career.
Darryl Liked Watching Linda and Tyrone Together
Darryl F. Zanuck enjoyed watching the underage Linda Darnell being forced to canoodle with the much older Tyrone Power on the screen, but what the studio head really desired was the actress all for himself. As the years went on, Darryl began to realize that the actress wasn’t willing to play ball with him in that way. Because of this, Darryl started to deprive the actress of roles that might help with her career.
From most perspectives, Darryl F. Zanuck was the biggest culprit in putting an end to Linda Darnell’s career. However, Linda’s mother also got jealous of her daughter’s newfound fame and tried to destroy her reputation in the tabloids. Linda’s mother did so by suggesting that Linda’s stepfather had molested the girl when she was young. The drama certainly didn’t have any positive effects on the star’s reputation, but whatever impact these rumors had was likely dwarfed by the impact of Darryl F. Zanuck’s actions.
In 1943, Linda Darnell would marry for the first time. Sadly, the actress wasn’t any more successful in love than she was in her Hollywood career. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among eh first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Linda Had No Luck in Her Romantic Life
In 1942, Linda received a scare when an anonymous party blackmailed her. The blackmailer asked for $2,000. Otherwise, he threatened, Linda was going to get hurt. The authorities were eventually able to identify the blackmailer as a random high-school student. Linda was free from the threat of receiving bodily harm from an anonymous stranger, but she wasn’t free from herself. In 1943, Linda married for the first time. Her first husband was a cinematographer by the name of Peverell Marley. This marriage made Darryl F. Zanuck more jealous than ever before, and he continued to wreak havoc on the actress’s career. To make matters worse, Peverell was 42 years old while Linda was only 19.
Peverell Marley was a man who enjoyed his drink, and he passed the habit on to Linda Darnell early on in the relationship. When Linda was introduced to drinking, she was quick to take he habit too far. The public started to notice that not only was the actress acting more erratically than ever before, but she was also rapidly gaining weight.
1944, Darryl F. Zanuck decided to throw Linda Darnell a bone by allowing her to appear in the film Summer Storm. The film helped the actress keep afloat in the entertainment industry, and it also repositioned her as a sex symbol where she had previously been more of an innocent waif. This led to a slight career renaissance; a mere five years after the actress had made her Hollywood debut. Being known as a sex symbol helped Linda continue to work, but it also came with some caveats. For one thing, Linda found herself being obsessed over by notorious Hollywood lothario Howard Hughes. Howard swept Linda off of her feet, all but destroying her first marriage. Linda was ready to leave her husband for Howard, but then Howard dumped her.
Linda Cheated on Her First Husband Twice
After being dumped by Howard Hughes, Linda Darnell had to return to her husband with her tail between her legs. Peverell wasn’t happy about the infidelity, but he didn’t demand a divorce… yet. However, Linda would engage in another extramarital affair soon afterwards that would cause Peverell to ask for a separation. This second extramarital affair was with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Linda was infatuated with the director, but he refused to publicly acknowledge her existence. Still, their romantic fling led to Linda’s first divorce.
Linda was freed from her 20th Century Fox contract in the 1950s, though she didn’t manage to find much work in the entertainment industry afterwards. She also married two more times over the course of her lifetime, though each of these marriages was even more short-lived than her first. Linda succumbed to alcoholism more than ever before during her later years, though it wasn’t alcohol that killed her. Instead, it was a fire. One night, Linda’s daughter Patty woke her up and complained that she felt unusually hot. As it turns out, there was a fire in the building. Linda managed to rescue her daughter, but she couldn’t save herself.
Darryl F. Zanuck Also Tormented Tyrone Power
The most success that Linda Darnell ever found during her lifetime was when she was paired on-screen with Tyrone Power. Tyrone power found more success in his life than Linda Darnell did, but he felt equally out of place. Whereas Linda could never find her place in the Hollywood system, Tyrone’s problem was that he wasn’t allowed to be himself. Tyrone was a bisexual actor who oftentimes favored the company of men. This was something that Darryl F. Zanuck forced the star to keep from the public.
Not only did Darryl F. Zanuck force Tyrone Power to hide the true colors of his sexuality from the public, but he also encouraged the actor to enter into a sham marriage. Tyrone’s first wife was a French actress who went by the single name of Annabella. Though Tyrone and Annabella got along swimmingly, they didn’t have much romantic interest in each other. During their sham marriage, Tyrone dabbled in many affairs with both men and women. The pair’s marriage lasted from 1939 to 1948. After divorcing from Annabella, Tyrone married two more women over the course of his lifetime. However, he also had affairs with many men.
One of the men that Tyrone Power spent a lot of time with romantically during his lifetime was Caesar Romero. In fact, it was Caesar Romero who publicly revealed the truth about Tyrone’s sexuality after the Golden Age actor’s death. marriage, and this affair is said to have caused Judy to have a breakdown. Tragically, Tyrone died at the age of just 44 after suffering a heart attack on the set of 1959’s Solomon and Sheba.
Linda Darnell and Tyrone Power made waves in the entertainment industry thanks to their on-screen pairing in multiple films, though neither performer had any luck with romance in their real lives. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that actress Linda Darnell was debuted to the public as a 19-year-old even though 20th Century Fox knew she was only 15, and that Tyrone Power was forced into a sham marriage by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck? As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
