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Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913 –
August 1, 1970) was an United States|American film
actor|actress.

In 1931, Farmer won an essay contest for a
controversial work titled "God Dies", and in 1935
won a trip to the Soviet Union while working for a
leftist newspaper.  These deeds led to accusations
that she was both an atheism|atheist and a
Communism|Communist,  but her first interest had
always been acting, which she studied at the
University of Washington.

She moved to Hollywood in 1935, where her striking
good looks and distinctive voice led her to a
7-year contract with Paramount Studios. After
receiving top billing in two well-received 1936
Paramount "B" films, she was cast opposite Bing
Crosby the same year in Rhythm On The Range. In
1936 she gave her most acclaimed performance when
she was loaned to Samuel Goldwyn to appear in Come
and Get It, based on the novel by Edna Ferber. 
Her portrayals of both the mother and daughter
were well received by critics and public alike,
and many critics wrote of her potential to become
a major movie star|star.  She married her first
husband, actor Leif Erickson the same year.

Farmer was not entirely satisfied with her career
progression.  Her aspiration was to be a great
actress and she felt stifled by Paramount's
tendency to cast her in costume dramas that
depended on her looks more than her talent, and
her naturally outspoken demeanor became
uncooperative and contemptuous.  In an age when
the studios dictated every facet of a star's life,
Farmer rebelled against the studio's control and
off-screen resisted every attempt that was made to
glamourize her life.

With the intention of solidifying her reputation
as a serious actress, she left Hollywood in 1937,
first to do summer stock on the East Coast, and,
after she was seen there by Harold Clurman and
Clifford Odets, to join the Group Theatre and to
appear in the Clifford Odets play Golden Boy.  She
embarked on an affair with Odets but he was
married to the actress Luise Rainer and offered
Farmer no commitment.  This relationship ended
with Farmer feeling betrayed that he had used her
drawing power to further the success of his play,
and she returned to Hollywood, somewhat chastened
and willing to continue her movie career, though
still on her terms.  She arranged a special deal
with Paramount where she agreed to stay in Los
Angeles for three months out of every year to make
motion pictures, freeing up the remainder of each
year for her theater activities.  Unfortunately
her two subsequent appearances on Broadway each
had short runs, and she found herself back in Los
Angeles, frequently being loaned out by Paramount
to other studios for starring roles, while at her
home studio she was consigned to costarring
appearances.

More insecure than her abrasive and self-assured
persona indicated, she was also battling
alcoholism and a driving offence set in motion a
chain of events that led to her downfall, with
Farmer seemingly determined to destroy herself. 
In October 1942 she was arrested for driving with
her headlights on bright during the wartime dimout
zone that affected the whole west coast.  The
police who arrested her suspected her of being
drunk and she was jailed overnight.  She was fined
$500.00, of which she immediately paid $250.00,
and was put on probation.  When the remainder of
her fine was not paid, a bench warrant was issued
for her arrest in January 1943.  She was found at
the Knickerbocker Hotel, where she did not
surrender peacefully.  At her hearing the next
morning, she behaved erratically, berating the
judge, demanding an attorney, and ultimately
throwing an inkwell at the judge.  He immediately
sentenced her to 180 days in jail.  Through the
efforts of her sister-in-law (who was a deputy
sheriff in Los Angeles at the time), Farmer was
quickly transferred to the psychiatric ward of
L.A.'s General Hospital. 

After she was found mentally incompetent, she was
sent to a private sanitarium where she received
insulin shock therapy. After nine months at this
institution, she was released into her mother's
care, and went to live with her.  Three subsequent
stays in a state mental institution followed, the
longest from April 1946 to March 1950.  At the
state institution she was subjected to
electro-convulsive shock treatment (ECT).  In
1950, her parents made a request that the state
review her case, declare her competent and parole
her. Farmer stated in her autobiography that they
had done so in order to have her take care of them
in their old age. At this time she believed that
she could be institutionalized again on her
mother's instruction, as had happened in the past.
Later she ascertained and secured competency for
herself. 

In 1954, after a brief second marriage, she moved
to Eureka, California where she worked anonymously
for almost three years as a secretary/bookkeeper
at a photo studio.  In 1957 she was finally
recognized by a radio promoter and talent agent,
who arranged for her to move to San Francisco to
work as a receptionist in a hotel where he had
planned for a reporter to recognize her and write
an article about her.  This led to a renewed
interest in her and a couple of appearances on The
Ed Sullivan Show where Sullivan treated her with
dignity.  This was followed by an appearance on
the TV show This Is Your Life, where Farmer was
questioned over her alcohol abuse and mental
illness.  Farmer stated that she did not believe
that she had ever been mentally ill, and even at
the time had not believed it, but that "if a
person is treated like a patient, they are apt to
act like one". Reviewers of the program described
her responses as highly intelligent, and also
noted her brusque but forthcoming reactions to
some of the more personal questions and suggested
that on occasions she seemed to be on the verge of
losing her patience.  She appeared in several live
television dramas and one mediocre film that
exploited her famous name, but Hollywood quickly
lost interest in her.

Farmer finally found security in Indianapolis
where in 1958 she was given her own afternoon show
Frances Farmer Presents but by 1964, her
alcoholism had made her unreliable and she was
fired. 

During this time she made friends who treated her
as family, something she claimed never to have
experienced before, and she lived the remaining
few years of her life in contented obscurity
before her death from esophageal cancer in 1970.

Frances Farmer is interred in the Oaklawn Memorial
Gardens Cemetery in Fishers, Indiana.

Her autobiography Will There Really Be A Morning
was published posthumously and previously unknown
details of Farmer's hellish life became public for
the first time.  Although Farmer had worked on it
until her illness overwhelmed her, much of it was
written by a friend Jean Ratcliffe.  Actress
Jessica Lange played Farmer in the 1982 feature
film "Frances" and was Academy
Award|Oscar-nominated for her role.  Lange has
maintained her compassion and empathy for Farmer's
 plight and in interviews remains an ardent
supporter.  Susan Blakely also portrayed Farmer in
a television production which used the title of
the autobiography.  

==Arguments against widely reported aspects of
Farmer's medical treatment==
In the years since Farmer's death, her treatment
in institutions has been the subject of serious
discussion and wild speculation, such as the
sensationalized chapter relating to her breakdown,
in Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger.  Her own
ghostwritten autobiography published after her
death described the brutality of her
incarceration, and claimed that she had been
raped, beaten, doused in freezing baths, and
forced by a warder to eat her own feces.  The
book's author, Farmer's friend Jean Ratcliffe,
admitted that she had written the book
specifically with the view to creating a saleable
and filmable property.  Ratcliffe later admitted
that she had deliberately exaggerated Farmer's
torment, and that much of the finished work was
not contributed by Farmer.  

A further biography Shadowland by William Arnold,
published in 1978, asserted for the first time
that Farmer had been the subject of a transorbital
lobotomy.  This statement was widely accepted as
factual, and scenes of Farmer being subjected to
the procedure were used to shocking effect in the
film Frances. Arnold stated several years later
that his intention had not been to create a true
biography of Farmer, and that much of his story
had been "fictionalized".  Debunkers of this
aspect of Farmer's representation have stated that
complete medical records for Western State
Hospital, where Farmer was a patient, detail all
lobotomies that were performed during her time
there.  Considered a ground-breaking medical
procedure at the time, the hospital did not
attempt to conceal their work, and on the contrary
kept extensive records.  Although hundreds of
patients received the procedure, there has been no
evidence presented to support the claim that
Farmer was among them; in fact, Farmer's own
medical records show that she was never operated
on for any reason while she was institutionalized.
Former staff members, including all lobotomy ward
nurses who were on duty during Frances' years at
Western State and who were still alive years
later, confirmed in 1983 interviews with Seattle
newspapers that Farmer did not receive a lobotomy.

Associates who knew Farmer during her later years
in Indianapolis have described her as a woman
capable of unreasonable or temperamental behavior,
who could sometimes be confrontational and
difficult.  They describe emotional outbursts
similar to those attributed to Farmer during her
Hollywood years.  They also describe a woman who
was able to establish a comfortable lifestyle and
a successful career, (albeit hampered by
alcoholism), in which she was required to display
creativity and intelligence, and to communicate
and interact effectively with a variety of people,
especially during her 6 year role as a television
presenter.   These comments do not support the
biographical description of her as a "lobotomized
zombie".

==Trivia==
*Farmer was the subject of a song by the popular
Grunge music|grunge band Nirvana (band)|Nirvana
entitled "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on
Seattle". The song is featured on the band's album
In Utero.
*The Medal Song by New Wave band Culture Club was
also written about Frances. The single release
featured a photograph of Frances with the caption
From Here to Eternity. It is included on the 1984
album Waking Up With the House on Fire.
*Frances was also the subject of a song "Lobotomy
Get's 'em Home" by "The Men They Couldn't Hang".

==External links==
*http://hometown.aol.com/jmkauffman/sheddinglight.
html "Shedding Light on Shadowland" - Essay
debunking many commonly believed myths about
Farmer, with a wealth of previously undisclosed
information about her
*http://www.geocities.com/~themistyone/index2.html
Frances Farmer fansite
*http://www.geocities.com/~themistyone/god_dies.ht
m Frances Farmer's  Essay "God Dies"
*imdb name|id=0002068|name=Frances Farmer

lived|b=1913|d=1970|key=Farmer, Frances