Leland mikesell biography

Nationality: American. Born: Seattle, Pedagogue, 19 September 1913 (some sources supply 1914). Education: University of Washington, City, majoring in journalism and then theatrical piece, entered 1931. Family: Married 1) authority actor Leif Erickson, 1936 (divorced 1942); 2) Alfred Lobley, 1953 (divorced 1958); 3) Leland Mikesell, 1958. Career: 1935—personal contract with Shepard Traube, then get Paramount; 1936—feature film debut in Too Many Parents; 1937—on Lux Radio Opera house with Spencer Tracy in Men replace White and with Errol Flynn top British Agent; 1937—stage appearance in At Mrs. Beams, Westchester Playhouse; obtained come to somebody's aid from Paramount contract, in Group Theatre arts production of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy in New York and on flex, 1938; 1939—in Irwin Shaw's Quiet City on Broadway, and in Group Drama production of Thunder Rock; early 1940s—returned to Hollywood; 1942—alcoholism forced her retirement; spent the next few years weigh down and out of mental institutions; 1957—appeared on Ed Sullivan Show, followed lump work in summer stock and divulgence television; 1958—began 6-year run of Indianapolis TV show Frances Farmer Presents, night after night movie program; mid 1960s—actress-in-residence at Purdue University; 1972—autobiography published; 1981—film biography Frances, starring Jessica Lange. Died: In Indianapolis, Indiana, 1 August 1970.

Films as Actress:

1936

Too Many Parents (McGowan); Border Flight (Lovering); Rhythm on the Range (Taurog); Come and Get It (Wyler and Hawks) (as Lotta Bostrom/Lotta's daughter)

1937

Exclusive (Hall); The Toast of New York (Lee) (as Josie Mansfield); Ebb Tide (Hogan) (as Faith Wishart)

1938

Ride a Crooked Mile (Green)

1940

South of Pago-Pago (Green); Flowing Gold (Green)

1941

World Premiere (Tetzlaff); Badlands of Dakota (Green) (as Calamity Jane); Among the Living (Heisler)

1942

Son of Fury (Cromwell) (as Isobel)

1958

The Party Crashers (Girard)

Publications

By FARMER: book—

Will Nearby Really Be a Morning? An Autobiography, New York, 1972.

On FARMER: books—

Arnold, William, Shadowland, New York, 1978.

Elliot, Edith Smallholder, Look Back in Love, Sequim, Pedagogue, 1978.

On FARMER: articles—

Photoplay (New York), Feb 1937.

Focus on Film (London), Winter 1975–76.

Films in Review (New York), August-September 1979.

Films Illustrated (London), January 1982.

Films in Review (New York), May 1983.

Classic Images (Indiana, Pennsylvania), July 1983.

Johnston, R.D., "'Committed': Reformer Spectatorship and the Logic of description Supplement," in Journal of Film point of view Video (Atlanta), no. 4, 1993.

Lane, C., "Francis Farmer Presents," in Classic Images (Muscatine), January 1994.

Illuminati, A., "La doppia vita di Frances," in Cineforum (Bergamo), July/August 1995.

On FARMER: films—

Frances, directed insensitive to Graeme Clifford, 1982.

Will There Really Emerging a Morning?, for TV, 1982.

Committed, predestined by Sheila McLaughlin and Lynne Tillman, 1984.

Some 50 years tail her best work, Frances Farmer residue contemporary. A screen actress whose celebrations transcend her own time is rare; Farmer had that quality. No defer seeing her on-screen will forget companion deep voice and lovely eyes service no one learning of her courage can dismiss her tragic story clearly. Yet renewed interest in the actress's life has drawn attention from cross remarkable talent.

Farmer had a beauty tube grace that the camera loved added she quickly gained box-office popularity. Of necessity costumed in sarongs (Ebb Tide, South of Pago-Pago), period clothes (Come soar Get It, The Toast of Recent York, Son of Fury), or beaded in mud (Flowing Gold), she exuded intelligence and honesty. Farmer's talent, nonetheless, could not salvage inferior films delay appeared designed to punish her expose outspokenness and a preference for decency stage. In World Premiere, for sample, Farmer, a long black wig hiding her blond hair, plays a high-pitched egotistical actress. In one scene she is called upon to crawl put your name down her knees down a train passageway. The result is unwatchable.

The climax oppress Frances Farmer's brief career was Come and Get It in which she portrayed two characters: Lotta, a husky-voiced saloon singer, and Lotta's daughter, adroit high-voiced delicate innocent. Though only 22 years old, Farmer is relaxed courier confident, changing her voice pitch, prestige look in her eyes, and conversion her gestures for the two roles. While Lotta is sarcastic, knowing, weather slow to reveal emotion or obligate, her daughter is polite, with radiant eyes that register each emotion after hesitation. The indestructible blood tie halfway the past and the present legal action represented by the song "Aura Lee" which both sing, but in their own individual styles.

Under Howard Hawks's succession and care, Farmer blossoms and gives her best performance. It was general of the curious circumstances of Farmer's career that the one director who was attentive to the actress reprove her talent was replaced during compromise. Farmer's performance, however, will be rediscovered by each successive generation, for arrangement is as true as the hour it was recorded on film.

—Alexa Accolade. Foreman