The dark story of Frances Farmer, one of the first 'bad' girls in Hollywood

Beyond the myth and the songs, there was an extremely beautiful, talented and, above all, rebellious woman. An actress who had all of Hollywood at her feet and went down in history as the "fallen angel" of the industry

Beyond the myth, there was an extremely beautiful, talented and, above all, rebellious woman. Frances Farmer, an actress who had all of Hollywood at her feet and went down in history as the "fallen angel" of the industry. She lived in her own flesh one of the most resounding falls that are known so far.

It was said that she was fed rat poison and that she ended up lobotomized in one of the many ins and outs of mental hospitals that she lived through. None of that was true, but in her prevails, as in so many stories, the example of the expensive fine she pays herself when she confronts the system.

Originally from Seattle, Frances Elena Farmer was born on September 19, 1913. Her childhood was relatively simple, she grew up in a family made up of a lawyer and a social worker, Lilian Farmer, who years later would be the cause of many problems in her daughter's life.

The first bump for Frances came when she, at 18, won a contest for an essay she wrote titled God Dies. The writing, based on the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, meant for Frances not only the winning of a $100 prize, but also the criticism of the press that raised the news of a school setting to a scandal.

"Seattle girl denies God and wins an award," read the headlines at the time. "If the young people of this city go to hell, Francis Farmer surely led them there," some church members in the city where Frances was born opined, according to Vanity Fair magazine.

Ella Frances then understood that people “could be very stupid”, as she told her years later in an interview: “She made me feel alone in the world. The more people sneered at me, the more stubborn I got. And when they started calling me 'the Bad Girl of West Seattle High,' I tried to live up to it," she said.

After coming out openly agnostic, Frances also discovered her true passion: acting. She, though, was more interested in doing theater than becoming a movie star. So she continued her studies in drama at the University of Washington.

Her next step in her training was a trip she made to Moscow, in the then Soviet Union, where she was able to study and see first-hand the method of interpretation developed by Constantin Stanislavski, since she was a fan of theater Russian.

Her stance and political leanings were much speculated in the press after this trip. For the time, she Frances could well have been the antichrist: agnostic and communist. However, years later, she clarified that she had no interest in communism, she simply wanted to see the theater that she admired so much.

New York: an unexpected opportunity and the pinnacle of success

Upon her return from Moscow, the 22-year-old actress settled for a time in New York City, where she had an unexpected opportunity: she signed a long-term contract with Paramount and would have the fortune to become a movie star, although she really would have wanted to dedicate herself to the theater.

The phenomenon was instant. Frances's ravishing beauty, and her talent as an actress in the first place, made her a critical and box office success. She shared credits with great figures of the time, such as "Bing" Crosby in the 1936 film, Rhythm on the range.

Also in that year she recorded what would be her best-known film: Come and get it, directed by Howard Hawks, who described her as the best actress he worked with, despite having worked with artists such as Katharine Hepburn or Carole Lombard.

Frances began to work furiously and participated in about 18 films. However, this amount of work of hers began to affect her and marked what would be the beginning of her descent in the eyes of the entire public.

The actress soon began to take amphetamines, which were then commonly marketed and prescribed by doctors to control the weight of actresses. It would not be until years later that she spoke of the terrible effects of the drug: the addiction and the development of symptoms similar to schizophrenia that it caused.