Portrait of Gene Tierney

Birthday profile

Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney, American actress and singer (died 1991)

Born
November 19, 1920
Died
November 6, 1991
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1920

About Gene Tierney

Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American stage and film actress. Tierney was a prominent leading lady during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She starred as Laura Hunt in Otto Preminger's Laura (1944), a film noir classic, and as Ellen Berent in John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven (1945), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Darryl F. Zanuck, co-founder of 20th Century Fox, said Tierney was "unquestionably, the most beautiful woman in movie history." Tierney was a 20th Century Fox contract player who did much of her work for the studio. She starred in many commercially successful Fox films, including The Return of Frank James (1940; her film debut), Tobacco Road (1941), Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), A Bell for Adano (1945), The Razor's Edge (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Iron Curtain (1948), Whirlpool and Night and the City (both 1950), The Mating Season (1951), On the Riviera (1951), The Egyptian (1954), The Left Hand of God (1955), and The Pleasure Seekers (1964; her last film role). After her Hollywood career began to decline, Tierney made sporadic appearances on many television shows. Her role in the miniseries Scruples (1980), marked her last work credit. Acclaimed for her great beauty, Tierney was a prominent leading lady during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Gene Tierney was born

Gene Tierney was born in 1920. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1920

  • #1 song"Swanee" – Al Jolson
  • Top movieThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  • Best-selling bookThe Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBabe Ruth sold to the New York Yankees
  • Top headlineWomen win the right to vote with the 19th Amendment
  • Technology milestoneFirst commercial radio broadcasts
  • Defining fadFlappers and the Jazz Age
  • Notable inventionBand-Aid adhesive bandages
  • World population1.86 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • Sports championCleveland Indians (World Series)
  • U.S. population106.0M

1920 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Gene Tierney's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19202026
Gas$0.30$3.45/gal
Average home$6,296$435,000
Average income$3,269$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population106.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.