Que Linda
All behavior is composed of structure, so the neuro-linguistic programmers tell us. Taglines and masquerading subjective as objective. The Hollyweird Svengali machine donned Linda Darnell
"the girl with the perfect face." Now granted that is high accolade, and I appreciate a compliment
as much as the next gal, but it would be this framing in a statement, that would be the bane of
Miss Darnell's existence, as she struggled years to prove her depth as an actress and equally - a soul.
Monetta Eloyse Darnell came into this world, Texas to be precise in 1923, into humble beginnings, one of a quintet of children to parents Pearl and Calvin. Calvin worked as a civil servant for the postal service. Pearl doted on Monetta in what one may consider an obsessive way, and much to the chagrin of her other children that would
go bereft of such attention lavished, for it was all about Monetta now. There was no denying however, that the kid simply had serious charisma and Pearl knew she could go capitalize on her daughter's beauty. Pearl would embark on a long pursuit to get her little girl into show business. And it began with beauty competitions, casting calls, elocution lessons, and other such kitchen sink antics. Mama Pearl was the veritable control freak and would stop at nothing to see Monetta get her name up in lights (somehow). The archetypal stage mother would finally see her dream materialize in 1934 and Monetta becomes Electra, I mean Linda of course, a model and stage actress by the time she blew out her thirteen candles.
By the time she was 16, RKO Pictures and 20th century Fox were battling it out for Linda and in 1939 would come her debut in Gregory Ratoff's A Hotel for Women which also starred that Sothern Belle, Ann (yes I know she was from North Dakota). Linda absolutely illuminated as Marcia Bromley, as if she were already seasoned from day one, quite unusual for an actress to walk into a lead role blindly, and execute such power. This teen would already be living the dream ( or was she)?
In 1940 Linda would star in a film that was an art imitating life moment Star Dust, her fourth film and a vehicle, which Darnell portrayed Carolyn Sayres, a girl who is on the cusp of great Hollywood success, until the fact that she is under-age is revealed. This very same scenario, note for note occurred when the young Darnell tried to pass off for sixteen, three years before she actually was and hoodwinked Hollywood for a short while until that little bag cat leaped out and Linda was sent home until her age would ripen.
The subsequent releases Linda would star in found her underwhelmed, beginning with an important yet uncredited role as the Virgin Mary in 1943's The Song Of Bernadette, an extremely overlooked moment as Netta Longdoon in 1945's thriller Hangover Square and several anticlimactic Western genre films. Now left with a bad taste in her gob, the actress was long feeling objectified and haunted by that very statement in such, that the only role she felt she ultimately achieved was for fulfilling the superheroine like archetype of perfect-featured gal, and the fact that industry folk were still treating her as if she were some kind of brand, turning a myopic eye to the reality that she was a serious thespian, and one with well-honed chops. Darnell was clearly undermined and disrespected and never having fair treatment bestowed upon her, for example in the sense that her contemporary Vivien Leigh managed to garner such respect and perfectly achieved the balance of being seen as charming, charismatic and an accomplished actress. Darnell would find herself at tether's end and in the late 1950s would semi-retire from acting. In lieu of the big screen, Linda would only make her subsequent appearances small screen style, guest starring in various hit series' of the day, as she would be seen going the televisual gamut from 77 Sunset Strip and to one of her last appearances, a 1964 episode of Burke's Law
One of the most tragic endings of any starlet, Linda Darnell who ironically had a dire fear of dying in a fire, actually did perish the morning after her Sherman Oaks home went ablaze. At County Cook Hospital she would be pronounced dead, April 10th, 1965 as a result of the severe third degree burns suffered. She was only forty-one.
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