Born in Seattle, Frances Farmer studied journalism and drama at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1935, after winning a trip to Russia to see the Moscow Art Theater, she went to Hollywood where she secured a seven-year contract with Paramount. By the end of 1936, she was one of Paramount's most talked-about new stars, largely by virtue of her loan-out to Goldwyn for the dual role of mother and daughter in Come and Get It (1936).
Late 1937 saw her achieve her long-held theatrical aspirations when she starred in the Group Theatre Broadway production of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy", a play in which she continued to tour for most of the second half of 1938 after its original Broadway run ended. However, starting in 1939, her erratic behavior and increased drinking started to make her less reliable and sought after. Though she starred in two big budget 1940 films after walking out of a Broadway-bound play by Hemingway, by 1941 her star had fallen considerably at Paramount and she was consigned mostly to co-starring appearances. Though her late 1941 performance in Fox's _Son of Fury (1941)_ was outstanding and critically praised, by 1942 her alcoholism and increasing mental instability led Paramount to cancel her contract.
In October 1942, she was arrested for driving with her headlights on bright in a wartime dim-out zone and was subsequently charged with DUI. When she failed to completely pay her bail, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest in early 1943, almost simultaneously with an assault charge against her being filed by a studio hairdresser. Her arrest on these charges ultimately led to her being placed in a private institution in southern California.
Her mother subsequently obtained guardianship and had Frances committed to Washington's Western State Hospital for the first time for a few months in 1944. Two other commitments followed, one for several months in 1945-46, and the longest from April 1946 to March 1950. Frances was released in 1950 and took a hotel laundry job in Seattle to help support her parents. In 1954, she married Seattle utility worker Alfred Lobley, but quickly left him and moved secretly to Eureka, California, where she worked anonymously for several years in a photo studio. In 1957, she was discovered by a talent agent who promoted her and was able to revive her career, including appearances on "Toast of the Town" (1948) (The Ed Sullivan Show) and "This Is Your Life" (1952), as well as a Paramount film and several live television dramas. In 1958, Frances moved to Indianapolis where she was hired by NBC affiliate WFBM to host an afternoon movie/interview program, "Frances Farmer Presents" (1958), which was rated number 1 in its time slot for the six years of its run. By 1964, her alcoholism had become so acute that WFBM fired her. She spent her final years operating several small businesses, usually with her friend Jean Ratcliffe, until she died from esophageal cancer in 1970.
Frances' story only became more infamous after her death with the publication of her ghost-written "autobiography" (actually written by Ratcliffe) "Will There Really Be A Morning?" in 1972, and even more-so with the "fictionalized" biography "Shadowland" released in 1978, which was the primary source for the feature film Frances (1982). Though "Shadowland"s author 'William Arnold admitted in a court case that many of the incidents depicted in his book were fabricated, including the infamous lobotomy, his version of her life went largely unquestioned despite vigorous opposition from many sources, including members of the Farmer family and physicians and nurses at Western State, where Frances was hospitalized. More incisive and critical analysis of his claims has been published within the last several years, debunking most of the more sensational allegations he put forth, most notably the lobotomy. Frances' sister Edith Farmer Elliot self-published what is probably the most complete and authoritative biography of Frances currently available, "Look Back in Love".
