Frances Elena Farmer

 Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913 – August 1, 1970)

An actress by trade, she is perhaps better known for sensationalized accounts of her life, especially her involuntary commitment to a mental hospital. Farmer was the subject of two films, one television special, three books, and numerous songs and magazine articles. A figure in the theater and in motion pictures during the 1930s and 1940s, she appeared in eighteen films, three Broadway plays, thirty major radio shows and seven stock company productions by the age of 27. However, by 1939, her temperamental work habits and worsening alcoholism began to damage her reputation. In 1940, after abruptly quitting a Broadway production of a play by Ernest Hemingway, she starred in two major films, both loan-outs to other studios. In 1942, Farmer was stopped and arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, and a warrant was later issued when she failed to pay off her bail. The next year, she was the subject of an assault charge by a hairdresser, and police went to arrest her. They traced Farmer to the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. Getting no answer, they entered her room with a pass key. They reportedly found her in bed (some stories include an episode involving the bathroom) and made her dress quickly. By all accounts, she did not surrender peacefully. At her hearing the next morning, she behaved erratically. She claimed the police had violated her civil rights, demanded an attorney, and threw an inkwell at the judge. He immediately sentenced her to 180 days in jail. She knocked down a policeman and bruised another, along with a matron. She ran to a phone booth where she tried to call her attorney, but was subdued by the police. They physically carried her away as she shouted, "Have you ever had a broken heart?" Newspaper reports gave sensationalized accounts of her arrest. Through the efforts of her sister-in-law, a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County, Farmer was transferred to the psychiatric ward of L.A. General Hospital.

There she was diagnosed with "manic depressive psychosis". Farmer spend years in and out of various hospitals, receiving the standard treatment at the time, and was even rumored to have undergone a lobotomy (which is probably untrue). Farmer died from esophageal cancer on August 1, 1970. She is interred at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Fishers, Indiana.